Road to Romance
by KingCookie III
Summary: Romance is something hard to come by, especially for Nick. but when he meets an old friend, Nick isn't sure if he wants to stay at the friendship level. Rated M for future chapters
1. The reunion

_**/writers note:  
I have never done this before...so don't judge me...and also enjoy the story/**_

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Chapter 1: The Reunion

"Dammit, it's way to hot out today." I said as I was walking to the Lastation guild, about to turn in some quest and trade some items for credits. _(You forgot to introduce yourself)_ oh right...my name is Nick, I have black hair with red highlights and red eyes _(don't ask)._ Anyways, I went into the guild in Lastation... _(you could have just said the guild)_ Quiet you. As I finished my business there and was about to head home _(which is outside the main city)_ I ran into someone...along with a ton of books and...clothing?

"Whoops...I'm so sorry." I heard a familiar voice...it was my old friend Noire (he's not kidding when he says that) still as attractive as from when I met her.

"Noire? Is that you?" I look up into those wonderful ruby eyes, on the outside I'm so calm and controlled, the inside however, I'm so excited to see her again.

"Nick?" Her eyes widened in surprise and shock.

"It's been awhile, and what's with all the books and...clothes?" I pick them up and give them to her, she took them and responded.

"Nevermind that, how are you even still alive? It's been 1,000 years since we last spoke." she seemed to be quite concerned, but I just played it off.

"That's my little secret." I smiled and gave her a little wink, she scoffed and started walking, beckoning me to follow.

"So, you going to the new school?" Noire, actually Black Heart is going to be one of the teachers at this new high school in Lastation. I was going to attend just for that, but then I realized that the school also allows clubs to start, so now I'm going to start a chess club _(I love chess)_.

"You know I am, I'm gonna start a chess club." I smiled, I didn't tell her that I was also going to see her, specifically because they never mentioned that publicly _(he's got some connections)_.

"Cool I'll see you there then." She went off into the basilicom and then yelled back "but not as a fellow student!" Before you start asking the author questions, the reason why I'm still alive after 1,000 years is because I'm half demon, I'll tell you more about that later, I'm going home now to eat.

* * *

 _ **/so did you enjoy that? I'm sure it's kinda sloppy...but still, cut me some slack, I'm new.**_

 _ **Anyway CookieCreeper, signing off/**_


	2. Past Conflicts

_**/guess who's back**_

 _ **...back again**_

 _ **...Cookie's back**_

 _ **...what the hell am I doing with my life**_

 _ **But anyways, hey peeps, how's it goin'?**_

 _ **Welp just to clear this up, some of my friends (among others) have asked me how often will I be putting up a new chapter, my answer to that is I'm going to try every week, because school**_

 _ **I would do it every day...but ain't nobody got time 4 dat**_

 _ **But nevermind that...I have a question for this chapter**_

… _ **.what's your favorite color? (You'll understand later why I asked this)**_

 _ **Now….ON TO THE STORY/**_

* * *

Chapter 2: Past Conflicts

" _*sigh*_ I'm going to hate this place" I mumble that to myself as I walk into the school, the school looked Insanely _(is that even a word?)_ fancy, like a private school...while most of the other kids had some fancy clothing if some sorts _(we're both going to assume that they paid to get in)_ , I _(along with a small group of kids)_ had on more casual clothes, I in particular had a red tee with a black leather jacket _(so gangster)_. I also had black jeans with my black and red FILAs _(I love FILA)_. Anyways I had already made friends with the kids in casual clothing….because we were all invited here by the goddesses themselves _(for some reason)_ , plus, I met most of them at a pool party for the opening of the school. So now we're off to the auditorium for a speech from the Deen.

"good morning students, today is a very special day for all of us….." the Deen went on about how happy she was for us to be attending the school, the rules and regulations, the dress code _(even though everyone had to wear a uniform)_ , and a bunch of other stuff I didn't care about. The only thing that caught my attention was that the first week was a 'free week' which meant that we could wear something besides our uniforms _(hence the dress code)_. The first week was also a time to get to know some of the teachers _(you know what we're going to do)_ , get used to the layout of the school _(which was rather simple)_ , and socialize with the other students. So the first thing I did was going to the cafeteria _(which everyone called the Grand Café)_ , because I was hungry and the Deen said all of the food was free for the 'free week' _(I forgot to mention that...also dat pun doe)_. So I got a little bit of food, and went into the courtyard where the map of the school was. While there I ran into a couple of people who I talked to briefly _(they weren't interesting)_. After finding Black Hea-I mean Ms. Black Heart's room on the map I was walking to the room when I heard a familiar voice.

"Hey girl, wanna hang out with me and the boys? Heh, heh, heh." That was the voice of Darwin Steel, the #1 problem in everyone's life. Not only was he rich….but he was a complete jackass and a womanizer, the worst kind of guy you could meet. The poor girl he was trying to flirt with _(and later date then gang bang...it's fucked up)_ was….Noire? OH HELL NO!

"Listen guys, I don't want to, leave me alone, please." she was practically shaking at this point, I could tell that she didn't want to go with them, I was going to have to intervene.

"There you are Noire, I've been looking everywhere for you." they all turned to me, Noire knew what I was doing and decided to play along.

"Yeah sorry about that, I kinda started wandering around and ended up here" she smiled and walked over to me "let's get going."

"Not before I deal with him." I whispered to her and walked over to Darwin. "So, messing with my girl are you?" Darwin looked a little bit scared when I said that.

"Listen man, I didn't know she had a boyfriend" he sounded confident, but I know he was afraid. I simply smirked.

"I'll let it slide this time, but you do it again," I picked up a rock and crushed it, "that will be you." I walked away with Noire by my side and when we got far enough away from the group Noire turned to me and said,

"Thanks Nick, I could tell they wanted to do more than just hang out." she shivered at the thought, I chuckled.

"I know the guy, he's not much of a threat unless his posse is with him." I look into the sky, almost drowning in memories, "I know that all too well." I looked her straight in the eyes "Just try to stay away from him, ok?" she nodded

"I was going to do that anyway." she smiled and took my hand "let's talk about it over lunch." she pulled me to the Grand Cafe, I could see her blushing when she realized that she was holding my hand.

"Wait...talk about what?" I had asked this after we got some food and sat down at a table outside. I was generally confused when she said that, but waited until we got our food.

"I want you to tell me what happened between you and that Darwin guy" I knew she would ask me this at some point, I was just hoping it wouldn't be a day after we reunited.

"Not much really happened, directly at least." Noire looked extremely concerned now bidding me to go on, "Well it started when a rumor had gone around my old school that I had was trying to do every girl in school, some people believed it...most didn't, but he believed it, so Darwin started to try it...but it didn't work out….." I stopped to recollect my thoughts.

"So what did he do?" Noire was looking more concerned every time I looked up at her, I sighed and continued.

"Well him wanting to be better than me in every way possible, he started dating girls...but then those girls would either suddenly disappear, drop out, or not act like they used to. Well it turns out that Darwin and his posse would gang rape the girl then threaten her to not say anything about it...the girl however would keep her distance from him or anyone on the football team, including me. Well some girl was brave enough to say something, but it was to one of the people who hate me….so a rumor went around that I did all those horrible things to the girls, I was arrested, but later released because they couldn't find any evidence of me doing it."

"That's terrible." Noire was in complete disbelief at this point, I sighed and went on.

"It was, but after I was released...nobody would talk to me, or even look at me…..all because of him. So fast forward to senior year, Darwin offered anyone who could pay well to kill me…"

"WHAT?!" Noire shouted, clearly shocked.

"Well all of the kids at my school payed him a total of $10,000 to end my life….he followed through...well he tried to. Darwin and his posse tried to jump me while was walking home the last day of school, fortunately, I knew about this...but unfortunately I put most of his posse in the hospital."

"Is that it?" I wanted to stop there, but she clearly wanted more, so I gave it to her.

"Unfortunately no, Darwin pretty much had it out for me after that and to add salt to my large wound, he raped my best friend Alexandre…..which drove her to suicide." I'm crying at this point, but I don't care, I hated this chunk of my life. I felt a soft hand lightly touch my arm.

"You seem to not want to remember the rest of this...you don't have to continue if you don't want to." Noire was one of few people that I showed emotion around, so she should know that I don't mind.

"I really don't mind," I wipe tears from my face and continue "two months after Alexandre's suicide, my mind had broken, I went to Darwin's house and put a note on his dresser to meet me in the Great Field to fight, alone, I was really surprised when he did show up alone...or so I thought, he and his gang tried to jump me again...but that time I had enough, I took my knife and slit one goon's throat, stabbed another one repeatedly, and cut Darwin's legs clean off. He's hated me ever since." I was a waterfall at this point, this was that part of my life where I ran into the forest to kill myself….only to be brought back to life by the demon lord. I never went back to the main city of Lastation for a while, mostly because of my new demon powers….but also because I wanted to get away from everything and start over.

"Thank you Nick." Noire, after a few minutes of silence, finally said something, but not what I was expecting her to say.

"Thank you for what?" I don't know what I did to make her thank me, all I did was tell her about what happened while I was gone.

"For telling me what happened, not many people talk to me...being a goddess and all." she got up and looked at her watch, "oh my, the school day is almost over...I can go home now." she smiled and kissed me as she walked by "see you tomorrow" I smiled back, knowing one thing…

"I'm gonna love this school."

* * *

 _ **/aaaaaaand done**_

 _ **WOW that was a longer chapter than I expected**_

 _ **But I hope that you enjoyed it**_

 _ **Also hugz and high-fives to...**_

 _ **Silver Highwind**_

 _ **pardus9**_

 _ **and**_ _ **bennydragon95**_

 _ **For favoriting and following my story**_

 _ **You are beautiful people**_

 _ **Special props to**_ _ **Silver Highwind**_ _**for following me**_

 _ **you are an awesome person and I hope you live a good life**_

 _ **also don't forget to review the chapters people...it really helps me out**_

 _ **and on that note**_

 _ **CookieCreeper signing off/**_


	3. The Reveal

_**/ONE PUUUUUUUNNNNCCCHH!**_

 _ **Sorry about that**_

 _ **I just rewatched one punch man**_

 _ **Anyways...sup you bootyful peoplez I am back**_

 _ **How have you been?**_

 _ **How's the family?**_

 _ **The kids?**_

 _ **Ok I should shut up now**_

 _ **but anyways you guys and gals should subscribe to my youtube channel and go follow me on my twitch (same username)**_

 _ **But for now...ONTO THE STORY! XD**_

* * *

Chapter 3: The Reveal

(Noire's pov)

/say waaaaaa?/

"*sigh* you're not going to interrupt my narration are you?" _(not unless I feel like it)_ fantastic, now I you in my head for the rest of this chapter _(that cuts deep girl, real deep)_. Anyways I was going home after the, shockingly depressing, story Nick told me. My mind still couldn't handle how he could have went through all that, and yet still came out somewhat ok _(Oh you'd be surprised)_ quiet you. So after I thanked him for telling me everything, and kissing him _(it was on the cheek, the relationship hasn't gotten that far….yet)_. WHAT! _(Nothing!)_ So after getting into the basilicom, I was greeted by a, happier than usual, Uni.

"Hey sis, do you know what day today is?" she looked up at me with sparkling eyes, I smiled knowing exactly what she was excited about.

"Today is A: our break day and B: The 5pb concert at Amour plage _(love beach for people who don't know French)_.

"Correct, now let's get ready to gooo!" Uni is just as excited as I am, this was one of the few times all of the girls would be in one place _(oracles included, because they need some love too)_. Anyhow, after Uni, Kei, and I got our stuff ready, we headed down to the beach. When we arrived sometime later, some of the others were already there _(Neptune, Nepgear, Histoire, Blanc, Rom, Ram, and Mina to be specific)_.

"Hey you two!" the first one to greet us was _(as usual)_ Nepgear. I've always wondered how she could deal with Neptune's shenanigans _(oooh, big words)_.

"Hey Nepgear, you wanna go for a swim?"

"Yeah let's go!" Uni and Nepgear ran off to the ocean, laughing and giggling all the way there.

"*sigh* I'll never understand what kind of relationship those two have." Neptune walked up to me and patted my shoulder, then stood next to me and broke out in a large smile, "but at least she has friends!"

"I do have a friend dammit!" I really hate it when she does this, plus I'm not lying when I say I have a friend….I just don't want to tell them about Nick _(because that would cause many misunderstandings)_.

"Is that so? And who is this friend of yours?" I really didn't want to answer that question, but at least she's the only one asking the question.

"I would also like to know about this 'friend' you keep referring to~." Vert had now joined in on the teasing train as well; fantastic _(obvious sarcasm)_.

"C'mon Blanny I know you want to know too." Neptune poked Blanc's shoulder until she responded.

"If she actually says something, I'll listen in." at least Blanc was...somewhat uninterested on the topic.

"*sigh* whatevs Blanny," Neptune quickly spun around to me and got in my face "now let's hear about that 'friend'." Neptune and Vert got really close to me, uncomfortably so, I simply sighed. I was going to have to tell them this eventually.

"Well I know that I'm one." Mina had intervened the moment she saw the discomfort in my face. Bless your heart Mina, bless your heart.

"Really?" Neptune seemed kinda disappointed that it was her, for some reason. "I honestly thought it was that guy you were hanging out with yesterday." I couldn't hide the shock on my face when she mentioned that. I was worried that she saw the kiss I gave him on the cheek, knowing her, Neptune would jump to conclusions about my relationship with him. "Oooh, maybe he's more than a friend….a boyfriend?" Neptune's smile was wide now, having seen the obvious shock on my face, and was now going to want to know everything.

"Or maybe he's her lover~." Vert _(as usual)_ had started poking fun at me as well, and I thought I was going to be able to relax.

"A guy? GROSS!" Ram had now joined in on the conversation, but I can understand her standpoint with guys _(A.K.A. Trick)_.

"Wow, never expected Noire to be within 10 feet of a guy...let alone be friends with one...especially after the creepy purple robot guy." That came from Blanc, who I thought would get me out of this...guess not.

"..." I was at a loss of words at this point, I didn't expect anyone, especially Neptune, to see me with Nick. Now I know they're not going to leave me alone about him.

"Speaking of that guy," Neptune pointed to a group of boys further down the beach, one of them being Nick _(obviously)_. "Oooh and you have the writer in your head, nice combo Noire." _(Oh god she heard me)_ "Hey writer dude, when am I going to get a fanfiction written by you?" _(You'll get it at some point)_ "awww you're no fun." _(can we move on please?)_ "Yeah sure."

"You should call him over here Noire, since you clearly feel safe enough to be alone with him~." Vert as usual had to make it sound weird.

"Um...it looks like he's pretty occupied with those other boys around him." Rom, despite being really shy, had said something that surprised everyone, Blanc included.

"*sigh* I'm so suppose you have a point, we wouldn't want to disturb boys talking about…..boy things." it's kinda funny how Vert plays so many games about boys, yet she doesn't have a clue what they would typically talk about.

"I vote we go and listen in on their little conversation, who's with me?" Neptune immediately grabs me and pulls me to a hiding spot. I'm surprised when the others are there too.

"I must figure out what straight boys talk about." Vert says this with a determined voice, it's actually kinda scary.

"Listen bro, I only killed two of them." this sentence caught all of our attention we all looked at which was talking, it was a young boy who kinda looked like Neptune, except with dirty blond hair, golden eyes, and a lower voice.

"I don't give a damn if you 'only killed two', you still killed people. That is gonna cause major problems for all of us." That was Nick, he clearly was pissed that his friend killed someone.

"You need to find Planeptune's anti-crystal, and DON'T fuck up this time, ya hear me?!" this came from another boy who had light brown hair, grayish-blue eyes, and a bad mouth.

"The anti-crystals?" Nepgear had _(at some point)_ joined us in our eavesdropping and was just as shocked as the rest of us were. Why would these boys want the anti-crystals? I've told Nick that they are dangerous...well unless one of them is a half-demon, but that wasn't likely, Histoire would have sensed the anti-energy and told us about it.

"Well the only reason that I can't help you out is because Planeptune has an oracle that can sense my anti-energy as soon as I enter the border!" I froze when I heard those words, Nick, my only guy friend, of all people, was a half-demon. Blanc _(despite being quiet this entire time)_ finally spoke up when she saw a tear fall down my face.

"You didn't know...did you?" I was shaking with anger, tears streaming down my face.

"I trusted him, and….he lied to me." I became a waterfall of tears and just sat there crying like a baby. Then, I felt Vert give me a warm hug.

"Shh, it's gonna be ok Noire, we're all right here for you." the boys had left some time after, Neptune and the others left soon after, but Vert and I sat there in each other's embrace. Long story short, I decided to leave and not stay for the concert, everyone understood and so I was trekking on home with one thought.

"I'm gonna make you pay."

* * *

 _ **/oh snap**_

 _ **That went from 0 - 100…real quick**_

 _ **Well what do you think she's gonna do to Nick?**_

 _ **I'd like to know**_

 _ **Also shout out to the people who gave me some love on chapter 2, you guys are awesome**_

 _ **And a big shout out to**_ _ **joanjoanleonar**_ _**for following me**_

 _ **You are a beautiful person**_

 _ **But for now**_

 _ **CookieCreeper has left the building/**_


	4. A Change of Plans

_**/ What's crackin' guys CookieCreeper 75 here**_

… _ **.*sigh* too much Lost Pause**_

 _ **You guys should watch him doe**_

 _ **Buuuut anyways, sup you sexy sons of bitches**_

 _ **How's it going**_

 _ **Have you been living life well? Good**_

 _ **Now enough talking….ON TO THE STORY! XD**_

* * *

Chapter 4: A Change of Plans

(Nick's pov)

 _ **/woo-hoo/**_

It's good to have you back Cookie _(it feels good to be back)_. Where did you go? _(Nowhere important to you)_ if you say so. ANYWAYS! moving on. So now today is the 3rd day of the 'free week' _(A.K.A. Wednesday)_ , five days until school actually starts...and three days until I revive my master, Khronis _(That's a cool original name, good job me)_. Ok let me explain, so yesterday, at the 5pb concert on Amour plage _(you know what it means)_ , I had met with some friends who just so happened to be there. We joked around, played a little soccer, then got to the serious conversation.

 _ **/flashback/**_

"So, you failed again didn't you?" this was Vinnie, he has unnecessarily long blond hair _(it goes down to his waist, but he keeps it clean and soft...so good on ya Vinnie)_ , ocean blue eyes, and a strangely tall stature _(Nick is about 5' 8" while Vinnie is 6' 2")_ , oh and he's bi _(he doesn't hide it, I can respect him for that)_.

"it's not my fault, the Planeptune Guards have guns….not just swords." That is Mercury, he's a small, boyish looking guy _(he's 5' 4")_ with dirty blond hair, light brown eyes _(they actually look gold, it's kinda cool)_ and a serious bad habit of breaking the 4th wall. "it's a good habit to have."

"OK, off that specific topic, you said guards?" this had me very concerned, if he killed any of them...that would spell doom for us getting the items that we need to revive Khronis.

"Yeah, they chased me down the street and got me into a corner...but I took care of them." my eyes widened at this. I needed answers, and fast.

"What did you do?" I asked this while trying to conceal my anger, because I already could figure out the answer.

"I did what anyone pushed into a corner would do, I killed them." it was at this point my third friend exploded with anger…

"YOU WHAT?!" Blake had now had Mercury by the throat with the intent to kill _(on the ground BTW, Blake is only 4' 8")_. Mercury, fearing for his life at this point, opened his mouth to say…

"Listen guys, I only killed two of them." as soon as he let that out of his mouth, Blake had punched him, then released him from his grip. Mercury, who coughed up a bit of blood, looked up at me...then quickly looked away. "What? You gonna hit me too?" he whispered that to himself, but I still heard him, I sighed.

"I don't give a damn if you 'only killed two', you still killed two guards," I was really pissed at him, he's always the one who fucks up a simple order. "this is gonna cause major problems for all of us." it was at this point Blake had grabbed Mercury again.

"Listen here, ya piece of shit. You need to get Planeptune's anti-crystal, and DON'T fuck up this time." Blake was so pissed that he had to sit in the water for a while, mostly because he would have killed some poor soul had he not.

"Well it'd be nice to have help, sense I clearly can't do it alone." I understand why it would be hard for him, but he needs to learn to handle shit by himself.

"Well I couldn't help you even if I wanted to; Planeptune has an oracle that can sense my anti-energy as soon as I cross the border. So you're going to have to get your shit together, and get it yourself." it was at this point Vinnie knew we needed to do something else.

"So how about we train together, it would be a nice change of pace would it not?" Mercury and I smiled at him.

"Yeah, it would." Vinnie told us to follow him to his training room _(since they were in Leanbox)_ , Blake had decided to join in on the fun too, so we all walked there together.

 _ **/end flashback/**_

That is where I am now, training with, almost all of my friends.

"TAKE THIS!" Blake swung his, extremely oversized, axe at me; I blocked with my scythe, then tried to sucker punch him in the gut. "too slow!" he roundhouse kicked me into a wall.

"Not bad, but you underestimate me." my scythe started to glow red, Blake froze for a split second, just enough time for me to quickly hit him with my scythe; which knocked him down. I put my blade up to his neck and smiled. "Sorry Blake, but you're a dead boy." he laughed, and stood up.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll admit defeat this time; but I swear that I'll kick your ass one day." I smiled and put up my scythe.

"Yeah...maybe-" my words were cut off by Mercury bursting into the room, he looked like he just ran a marathon.

"Guys, we have a problem." Mercury was breathing really hard and looked terrified.

"What's wrong Mercury?" something told me that I was not going to like the news.

"First off: Purple Heart found the anti-crystal, and is keeping it in her basilicom and-" Mercury was cut off by a very angry Blake who yelled…

"HOW THE FUCK DID THAT HAPPEN?!" Mercury cringed for a second, then went back to his usual cheery self _(but you could tell he wasn't happy)_.

"When I went down to the cave to get the anti-crystal, Purple and White Heart were there. They were talking about how to destroy the anti-crystal. When they couldn't figure out a way, Purple Heart said she was going to keep it in her basilicom for safe keeping. You two both know I can't fight two goddesses." Mercury was right, he could barley hold his own against one goddess; much less two.

"Is there any other bad news?" I asked this wanting the answer to be no, but Mercury nodded.

"Yeah, all the goddesses are aware of us now, the damn tome already locked on to your anti-energy signal. The goddesses are on their way here right now, to kill all of us." I froze. The goddesses were aware of us, and now there coming to end our lives. We have to leave, now. I sighed.

"Looks like there's a change of plans boys, we get the anti-crystal from the basilicom, and revive Khronis, tonight." Blake and Mercury nodded and packed what little they had to eat and drink, I did the same.

"Does the giant know?" Blake was referring to Vinnie _(because of how tall he is compared to Blake)_. He actually sounded concerned for him; that's a first.

"Apparently the goddesses could not identify his energy signal, so he knows, he just doesn't have to worry." at this point we all burst through the door and ran through a thick forest between Lastation and Planeptune. I felt like I just ran into a wall of water when we passed into Planeptune. Then we hard what we didn't want to hear…

"hmhmhm, you thought you could hide didn't you?" we looked up and saw a very amused Green Heart looking down at us.

"Oh fuck." Blake took the words right out of my mouth. Green Heart lunged at me with her spear; I just barely dodged the attack and kept running. I didn't have time for her, or anything for that matter. We all managed to get to the main street where the basilicom was, but immediately ran into another problem…

"I'M GONNA KILL YOUR SORRY ASSES!" White Heart had been waiting for us at the end of the street, along with Purple Heart.

"Nick, go. Mercury and I can handle this by ourselves, we'll give you all the time you need." before I could object, they both charged the goddess duo, I made a silent prayer that they would be safe.

 _ **/sometime later/**_

I had somehow made it inside with no guard resistance, I was getting a bad feeling about going to get the anti-crystal alone...but I had no other choice. I hacked into the vault and took a step in, I jolted when I felt my 7th sense kick in, there was a powerful enemy nearby...very powerful. Another thing I noticed was that it was largely emotional power, not physical, that put me even more on edge. I sighed. "It looks clear, but if that's the case….then where is the source of that immense power?" I walked further into the vault until I found the last anti-crystal. I breathed a sigh of relief. "There you are, my sweet, sweet anti-crystal." I grabbed the crystal and a voice that oozed hatred rang throughout the room…

"You….you betrayed me." I turned around to find an EXTREMELY pissed Black Heart just a couple of meters from my only exit…..this could end badly _(for him at least)_. She slammed the vault door closed. I readied myself for a fight. Then, she charged at me while screaming…

"AND I'M GONNA MAKE YOU PAY!"

* * *

 _ **/ Oh dayum**_

 _ **She be pissed**_

 _ **I think I'm scared of her now**_

 _ **But nonetheless that was chapter 4**_

 _ **I hope you enjoyed it**_

 _ **Also booty slaps to..**_

 _ **CauseOfGaming**_

 _ **Carlos7518**_

 _ **And**_ _ **Hooded Lord**_

 _ **For following my story**_

 _ **I love all of you**_

 _ **Also thanks to the people who give me a little love...you people are awesome**_

 _ **But for now…**_

 _ **CookieCreeper...OUT/**_


	5. Clouded Minds

_**/Sup nerds**_

 _ **I'm back**_

 _ **How've you been?**_

 _ **Has life been treating you well? Good**_

 _ **Sorry this took so long...computer problems**_

 _ **But nevermind that….ONTO THE STORY! XD**_

* * *

Chapter 5: Clouded Minds

"AND I'M GONNA MAKE YOU PAY!" Black Heart charged me with streams of tears falling down her face, she clearly was attacking out of pure anger and rage. Just looking at her told me that she wasn't thinking clearly, I had to make her think straight.

"Ha, you really think you can? I can tell that you can't concentrate, because there's a trap in front of you!" When I yelled that, she froze and looked down at the ground. There was nothing there, I was just proving my point. I was, of course, going to use this to my advantage. I kicked her into a wall and ran off with my newly acquired anti-crystal. I still like her, and I didn't want to go and hurt her...even though she would hurt me no problem. I never wanted this...had I not been given a second chance at life, none of this would have happened. I can't worry _(and be sorry)_ about what could and couldn't be, if I wanted to finally be free of this torture; Khronis is going to have to be revived.

 _ **[sometime later at Vinnie's mansion]**_

"So, we got 'em all…..what now?" Mercury had decided to break the silence that had come over us with a question that was kinda dumb, even for Mercury _(no offense man)_ (none taken)

"Well, obviously we're gonna head down to the forest of lost souls, revive Khronis, then everything **should** return to normal." Vinnie gave me a concerned look, he and I both knew that we would probably be betrayed and have to fight Khronis instead of him just going away. That was a risk I am willing to take though. However, I decided that we wouldn't go tonight _(ya know with the goddesses trying to kill them and all)_. "Remember, tomorrow night is the night we strike, be ready." They all nodded and went to their respective rooms; Mercury and Blake pretty much fell asleep immediately. I on the other hand, was greeted by Vinnie standing in my doorway.

"You sure you want to go through with this? I mean, we probably should wait until the goddesses stop hunting us." Vinnie has always been a tactical and careful strategist, taking in all possible options and weighing the pros and cons before going into a fight. I, however, just go straight into a fight and often end up getting myself hurt. I had a feeling that he would show up and try to stop me from going tomorrow night, but there was no stopping me this time.

"I'm positive that this time, **my** plan will work. I also am aware that we might have the goddesses to fight on our way there, but I just want to end the mental torture that I'm going through. You wouldn't know the first thing about torture." Vinnie sighed out of defeat, he knew that this was one plan I wasn't going to back out of. I'm also assuming that he's just **way** too tired to continue arguing.

"Fine, just try not to get yourself killed. You know how Jack would react if you went and died." I flinched when he mentioned Jack. Jack is my little brother, in fact, Jack is a full-demon _(for those of you who don't know; a full-demon is a human that was birthed directly from a true demon. It's a really cool thing to see)_. He has some; issues with gods and goddesses, especially when they try to touch him. It's not pretty. Anyhow, a defeated Vinnie walked out my room and closed the door behind him, I went to sleep with one thought…

"I'm gonna end this tomorrow."

 _ **/the next day/**_

"Dammit, she's gonna get herself hurt if she stays with him. I don't blame her for going after him though, I did break her heart." I mutter this to myself as I watch Noire hanging out with Darwin, the one person that I never wanted her to be around. The moment I find out that he and his posse did something to her, I'm gonna kill every. Single. One of them. For now though, Darwin was just showing off to the other guys who he is dating _(because he likes making the other guys jealous)_. I see a girl looking at me; that's strange, people don't just randomly stare at me. When I look over at her, however, she immediately looks away. She's obviously nervous, I think I'll toy with her a little _(not like that. Get your head out of the gutter)_. "Hello there, I couldn't help but notice you staring at me, do you need something?" The girl spun around, clearly surprised that I caught her staring. Then she relaxed.

"P-please, why would I b-be staring at you, there are plenty of other g-g-guys I could have been staring at besides you." How did I not recognize mini-Noire _(A.K.A. Uni)_. She can be so cute sometimes. That being when she's not being so tsun-tsun. Right now though, I just remembered that I need to head to the store and get some supplies for tonight. So I need to end this conversation.

"Uni, I'm one of the few guys you can actually talk to. Why wouldn't you stare?" Uni huffed and walked away. "Well that was easy." I was walking out of the school premises when I was stopped by Kyle, my personal servant and spy, who looked very worried when I gave him an annoyed look.

"Master Nick, we have a problem." My gaze turned from annoyed to concerned.

"What's the problem Kyle?" Kyle looked around us, making sure that no one could hear us.

"It's Darwin, he's invited Noire to go clubbing with him tonight. She accepted the invite. You can do one of two things Nick, go and save Noire, or let what happened to Alexandra happen to her." Kyle walked away not wanting to talk anymore. There is one thing going through my head right now. Why would she accept the invite, she knows what he and his posse is capable of doing. Welp, it looks like I'm gonna have to play the hero, but there's just one problem.

"What if she doesn't want to be saved?"

* * *

 _ **/well I hope you enjoyed chapter 5**_

 _ **It was a lot shorter than I would have liked**_

 _ **But….meh**_

 _ **Anywho shout out to:**_

 _ **Supreme Evil King**_

 _ **For favoriting my story**_

 _ **And that's my cue to leave….BYE!**_


	6. Revenge (Not Rescue?)

_**/GOLDEN PENIS!**_

 _ **Sorry about that**_

 _ **Too much**_

 _ **But anyways sup you bootyful peoplez**_

 _ **I am back**_

 _ **How are you guys doing?**_

 ** _ **My computer is fixed now**_**

 ** _ **Chapters should be coming out a little faster now**_**

 _ **And a quick reminder**_

 _ **Remember to send me reviews**_

 _ **They help me out a lot**_

 _ **Now then...ONTO THE STORY XD**_

* * *

Chapter 6: Revenge _(not rescue?)_

"We're still striking tonight right?" Blake had asked me this for the 10th time. It was getting quite annoying to tell him the same thing every time.

"Yes Blake, we're still striking. I just have something...personal to deal with." Blake nodded and walked back to the living room. I'm pretty sure he knew what I was talking about, all of the 'popular' kids were invited to the party _(Nick and Blake included)_. Blake and the others weren't going because of the raid, but I told them that I was going to make sure Darwin didn't do anything to **any** of the girls at the party. They understood _(of course)_ and said that their part would be done in about an hour, that's plenty of time to keep an eye on Darwin and his posse. I looked at my watch and noticed that it was 10 o'clock, it's time to head to the party. "Let's see you try something now Darwin Steel." I mumbled this on my way to the party, the hatred oozing out of my words.

 **/at the party/**

"Hey there big boy~, wanna come dance with me~?" as usual, the moment I enter the room, at least half of the girls ran up to me and said this in perfect unison _(That's creepy)_. I declined them all and sat leaned up against a wall in the corner of the club, looking around for Darwin or Noire. Preferably both.

"You're concerned about Noire too, aren't you?" I almost screamed by the Kei, who somehow snuck up on me. Kei is one of few people who know what Darwin and his posse are capable of doing, so it would seem obvious that she would be here keeping an eye on Noire. "You may be a half-demon...but you still let your feelings control you; I like that." I smiled at her and began listening in on the conversation between Darwin and Noire. The moment he asks her to go somewhere with him and his boys, I'm showing no mercy.

"Man I can't believe the DJ couldn't make it tonight, the party would be so much more exciting. Don't you think so Noire?" Noire, who was resting her head on Darwin's shoulder, giggled _(probably because she's drunk)_ and nodded. _Looking_ at bit tipsy.

"Hehe, pwobably. Ith *hic* woood be awshome hahaha!" Holy hell, how drunk is she? I'm sure this is when he's going to strike, if he's smart he'll go while everyone else is drunk. *ring* *ring*, Darwin's cellphone rang and he picked up.

"Hello? Yeah it's me _(I just realized what I did there lol thank you Adele)_. You can? Awesome, I'll be there in 5 minutes." Darwin got up but an intoxicated Noire grabbed his arm, causing him to turn back to her.

"Who washh tat? And...whe-*hic*...where arse you goin'?" Darwin looked amused at Noire's drunken state. He patted her head and said…

"Another DJ just called me and said that he could come to the party and play for us. I just have to pay him in person, would you like to come with me?" It was at this point I had heard enough to walk out the club among some others who were going home. I went to a nearby convenience store bathroom and changed into my death bringer battlesuit. My battlesuit is a black hoodie so people can't easily identify me _(well the hood at least)_ , black pants with blood red stripes going down the sides _(for style)_ , and a face mask that looks like a skull. I had followed Darwin and his posse until I saw who they were surrounding. Noire, and a **sober** Noire at that. She was trying desperately to get loose and run free, but she couldn't. Darwin laughed at Noire's struggle.

"Well boys, it looks like we get a very special treat. So why don't we just cut to the chase and dig in." Darwin and his posse laughed as they started to take off her clothes. Guess it's my time to shine.

"Unfortunately for you, I'll be taking that so called 'treat' of yours." they all stopped and looked up at me _(I forgot to mention that he also has a voice changer. That way no one could recognize his voice)_ , all of them pulling out knives of all sorts.

"Who the hell are you?" one of the goons asked me this, obviously not expecting me to stay quiet and just hop down from the roof I was on and throw a shurken at his face. Darwin and the rest of his posse looked at me into fear.

"Bastards like you don't deserve to live." That was the last thing I've said before I'm charged at them, the boys doing the same. Knocked most of them out with a couple punches, then two of them charged me from opposite sides. I beat one down with a crowbar and bashed the other's skull into the wall _(4 times)_. I stabbed another guy in the throat and then beheaded the last goon. It was just me and Darwin now, now is my chance to get payback. I held him up by his throat and was about to slowly cut him to pieces when Black Heart yelled at me.

"Don't do it!" Noire pulled me away from him and walked over to him. "I wanna do this myself." I stared at her in shock as she stabbed him and de-transformed back into Noire walking away from the body. "Also, I must thank you for coming to my aid, they had somehow restricted my HDD. I don't want to know what they would have done to me had you not been there." she shivered at the thought and then slightly lifted my face mask and gave me a kiss on the cheek. "I would love to see who you really are, but that'll be another time. I must go home now, bye!" she transformed and flew away blowing me a kiss as she flew. I waved goodbye and started running to the forest of lost souls with one thought in mind…

"You won't get the chance to do that Noire, not where I'm headed."

* * *

 _ **::POST CREDITZ::**_

 _ **Nick: what the hell is this?**_

 _ **CC75: A new outro :D**_

 _ **BH: apparently**_

 _ **CC75: guess I'm running out of ideas… AND WHEN THE HELL DID BLACK HEART GET HERE!?**_

 _ **BH: is there a problem?**_

 _ **CC75: NOPE! None at all**_

 _ **BH: I thought so**_

 _ **Nick: hey Cookie...thank the people for liking and following our story**_

 _ **CC75: oh right I want to say thanks to…**_

 _ **IWhackRabbits**_

 _ **Castor115**_

 _ **And**_ _ **gangstar vegas**_

 _ **...for following/favoriting my story**_

 _ **Nick: thanks a bunch you guys**_

 _ **BH: you are some awesome people**_

 _ **Nick: I want to personally give give a big ol' hug to**_ _ **IWhackRabbits**_ _**for following Cookie...you are a king in my book**_

 _ **BH: alright, alright enough ass kissing let's just end this already!**_

 _ **CC75: alright everyone...say your goodbyes and let's get outta here**_

 _ **Nick: see ya next time XD**_

 _ **BH: farewell readers...see you in the next outro**_

 _ **CC75: this is CookieCreeper75...sinning off**_


	7. The Whole Truth

_**/I am mad scientist...it so cooooool!**_

…

…

 _ **Sonofabitch ('merica...FUCK YEAH!)**_

 _ **Ahhh steins gate...never change**_

 _ **Anyhow hey you sexy sons o' guns**_

 _ **I'm baaaaack**_

 _ **And I am ready to RUMMMMMBBBLLLLLLLEE!**_

 _ **XD**_

 _ **Sorry I'm just a little hyper today (ADULT NEP IS BAE!)**_

 _ ***sigh* I really gotta stop interrupting myself (NEVER XD)**_

 _ **Anyways….ONTO THE STORY!**_

* * *

Chapter 7: The Whole Truth

"Guard the entrance, I'm going to be awhile." I told Blake and Mercury before I went into the forest of lost souls, knowing that I wouldn't come back out. While in the forest of lost souls, Vinnie is constantly _(and desperately)_ trying to talk me out of having Khronis release my soul. I simply told him to go away and keep watch over the entrance to Khronis' cave while I talk to him. He grudgingly left, leaving Khronis and I to have our little chat.

"Hello there, my favorite indentured servant." Khronis looked quite amused at the angered look I gave him, despite knowing that I could kill him with his own power. I just didn't have time for that, plus all the bullshit he liked to pull.

"Now is not the time Khronis. I've done my part and gotten what you wanted, now it's time to do your part." I hold out my hand and show him the anti-crystals. He laughed like I had just said a funny joke, I have a feeling he is about to betray me.

"HAHAHA! Very well, I will give you what you asked for, Nick. Kneel before me to receive your end of the deal." I kneeled before him and awaited the sensation of my _(second)_ death, but fate had other plans. "NOOOOOOO!" I hear Khronis scream and look up in horror as I see Khronis being incinerated by...share energy?

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" I stand up and turn around to see Black Heart pointing her _(extremely oversized)_ sword at me, I am so confused as to why she was concerned about me.

"Why the hell do you care? I know your heart has been shattered because of what I am." Before I could stop myself, I drop kicked Black Heart into a tree. She jumped up and charged at me, she stopped a foot in front of me and swung her sword at me. I hop backwards hoping that she would miss, but she managed to cut my cheek. I wince a little at the pain, but keep going. I use my dash ability to quickly close the large gap between us. I grab her head and hit it as hard as I could against a nearby tree, causing her to scream out in pain. "I shouldn't even be alive right now, so answer me. WHY THE FUCK DO YOU CARE!?" tears started streaming down my face, along with the blood from my cut. I'm pretty sure that the right side of my face probably looks like the skin was ripped off. I released Black Heart from my grip and ran from her, my emotions getting the better of me. Black Heart landed in front of me and was held me up by my shirt.

"I care because you are the only friend I have outside the other goddesses and goddess candidates."

"You mean besides K-sha?" I know that Noire wanted to introduce me to K-sha for sometime now, she just never got around to it. Plus I already knew K-sha; hell, I even dated her for about a month. I wasn't going to tell her that though.

"Wait, you know K-sha?" Noire is clearly confused. She's probably trying to remember if she's introduced her to me before, which she hasn't.

"Yeah, I met her a while back. Speaking of her, how's she been?" I could tell Noire had _(for some reason)_ lost the intent to fight me, so I decided to strike up a conversation. I wasn't going back to the afterlife now, so I might as well **act** happy.

"She's doing fine. More importantly...WHY WERE YOU LETTING KHRONIS STEAL YOUR SOUL?! I had a feeling she would ask me this eventually, but I kinda don't want to answer that question. I'm assuming that she'll force me to eventually, though.

"I did it because I shouldn't even be alive right now, that's why." silence. She said nothing. I thought she would have screamed 'WHAT?!' or something by now.

"…"

"…"

"…"

I've had enough of this awkward silence. I turned around and started to walk away. I honestly didn't care if she never spoke to me again, or if she ends me right now. I did not expect, however, to have a pair of arms wrap themselves around me. I look over my shoulder to see that Noire was embracing me. I never expected her to do something like this. I needed to know why she was hugging me, and not slaughtering me. "Noire, why-" she put a finger to my lips to silence me, then looks into my crimson eyes.

"I'm embracing you because you are important to me, I never want you to leave. I already told you this before." I know what she said before, I wasn't expecting her to want to **stay** my friend. "Now I want you to tell me the **whole** truth about what happened, don't bendit this time." well, I'm not going to lie about what happened afterwards so I'll just tell her outright.

"Fine, I'll tell you the truth...the whole truth. A few weeks after Alexandre's suicide...I ran into this forest and killed myself." I felt Noire tense up after I said that.

"Why didn't you tell me this before?" she didn't sound angry, she sounded bewildered more than anything.

"Noire, you know as well as I do that telling you that would cause you to call me a half-breed and try to attack me." Noire opened her mouth to say something, but immediately closed it when she realized I was right. "Now I think we should go and tell everyone that this conflict is over, there's no use in fighting each other." Noire nodded; she was probably thinking the same thing.

"That's a good idea, let's go now." Noire pulled me by the arm to the exit of the forest of lost souls. Noire was greeted with hugs and sighs of relief. I, on the other hand, was greeted with swords and axes in my face. I looked over at Noire.

"Some resolve this is, amiright?" Noire rolled her eyes and stood in front of the other girls.

"Ladies relax, we're cool now, sheath the weapons." all of them were reluctant, but put away their weapons.

"So, the conflict is just magicly over? What about the other bastards we beat up?" Blanc points over at Blake, Vinnie, and Mercury, who were knocked out. They were horribly beaten and battered, I would have thought they were dead had they not started squirming around.

"Take them to a hospital, Nick and I have some business to attend to." Noire and I walked hand in hand to the basilicom. This day ended strangely well, almost comically. There was one thing I was still trying to figure out…

Why is my soul gone, but my body still lives?

* * *

 _ **.:POST CREDITZ 2:.**_

 _ **CC75: aaaaaaaaaaaaand done**_

 _ **BH: finally**_

 _ **Nick: what took you so long?**_

 _ **CC75: blame the shit that goes on in my life**_

 _ **Nick: oh...that explains it**_

 _ **BH: let's just thank the new people and end this already**_

 _ **CC75: yeah, yeah, I know**_

 _ **Special thanks to...**_

 _ **Nazo-XXX**_

 _ **Sethers97**_

 _ **...for following/favoriting my story**_

 _ **BH: Nazo gets a hug for following Cookie**_

 _ **Nick: so that's all...LATER PEEPS**_

 _ **BH: see you all next time**_

 _ **CC75: CookieCreeper….OUT!**_


	8. The Forgotten Clan

_**/I'm a bird mother- I'm a bird!**_

 _ **LOL #toorandom**_

 _ **Anyways sorry this took so long**_

 _ **Life's a bitch**_

 _ **But now...ONTO THE STORY!/**_

* * *

"Trust is the glue of life. It's the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It's the foundational principle that holds all relationships."

~Stephen Covey~

* * *

Chapter 8: The Forgotten Clan

(Noire's pov)

Back in my head now, are you? _(Did ya miss me?)_ Nope. _(That cuts deep girl. Real deep.)_ I like the quote by the way _(thanks)_. ok Hush now and let me start my narration. _(Ok)_

Nick and I headed to the basilicom to talk privately about what's going to happen to him. I don't know whether to put him in jail for a few weeks, or just leave him alone. We arrive at the basilicom without many issues. I tell him to take a seat, ask him if he wanted something to drink _(he said no btw)_ , then sit down in a chair across from him and give him a serious look. "You are aware of what you did, right?" he doesn't answer me with words, instead, he nods slowly. I've taken note that after I said this to him, he stopped looking at me. He must have realized how much trouble he should be in; I mean he should be going to prison for breaking and entering, inflicting/attempting to inflict harm to a goddess, and a few other small things that I'm not going to mention _(for length's sake)_. The problem is, I don't want to punish him. One half of me is saying that Nick's just some poor soul that was misguided. I don't think he should be punished for that, but the other half of me says that he should be punished. GAH! Why is this something difficult?.

"Ya know I don't care if you punish me, right?" Nick's voice derailed my train of thought. I never expected him to not care so much, in fact, his voice sounded flat _(like Blanc :3)_ and emotionless. I looked up to see Nick's eyes were completely black _(like some animal's eyes)_. My eyes widened in shock. If he always looked like this, how did I not notice this earlier. I should probably just ask him about it.

"Hey Nick, what's wrong with your eyes?" Nick looked at me with confusion.

"Hand me a mirror." I held my mirror up to let him see himself. His eyes widened with shock. "What the hell is this shit?" Nick reacted exactly how I thought he would. So my prediction was correct, he didn't always look like that.

"What happened to you, Nick?" I was really concerned about him. I was wondering if he was one of those anti-goddess assassins that was suffering from amnesia, Vert had one of those in her army _(please don't ask)_.

"That's what I'd like to know. I've never looked like this before, and why is my voice so dull?" Nick, despite his voice being extremely dull, sounded like he was only acting like he didn't know what was going on. I knew, however, that he had some sort of idea of why this was happening _(she knows him that well)_.

"Well we should go to Histoire and see if she knows anything." Nick nodded in agreement, I transformed and carried him to the Planeptune. Histoire, who I called as we left, was waiting for us on the balcony.

"Oh my, he looks worse than I thought. Bring him to my office." _(it's supposed to be Neptune's workplace, but we all know why Histy calls it hers)_. I walked him to the office and sat him down in a chair across from me. "His vital signs are all normal, however, his body temperature is dropping 5 degrees every 30 minutes." I shivered a little when she told me that. I knew something was wrong, I just didn't know it was this serious. "Noire, I'm going to have to scan him. If my predictions are correct, this will be a wonderful discovery. Come with me Nick." Histoire becomes him to follow her as she floats off to...the share room? Nick absentmindedly follows her into the room. I hear a loud whirring noise, then a click, then a bright flash of light. Something tells me not to try and peep to see what's going on.

 _ **/HALF AN HOUR LATER/**_

After all of the strange whirring noises, loud clicks _(sometimes smacks)_ , and bright flashes of light _(different colors every time)_ were done, Histoire finally came back into the room with Nick. Nick looked like he was going to pass out, like he ran nonstop for the half an hour that they were in there. Histoire looked quite happy, like a kid in a candy store.

"So, what's wrong with him Histoire?" the entire time they were in there, all the bad possibilities for what happened to him were flowing through my head. I needed some relief.

"I've just made the most amazing discovery, you'll never believe this. I must call Neptune and the others and tell them all about Nick." Histoire floated away to call the girls here. I wonder what's so amazing that she has to tell everyone about him. I guess I could ask Nick about it.

"Hey, Nick, what's this 'amazing discovery' Histoire's going on about?" Nick turned to me and shrugged.

"Beats me, she didn't tell me anything." typical Histoire, not even telling the subject how important he/she is.

 _ **/1 hour later/**_

"Ladies, I have a very important announcement for you all." Histoire was practically glowing with the large smile she had on her face. The other girls were just as confused as I was, but you could also tell that they are greatly interested in what she has to say. "Do you girls remember when I told you about the forgotten clan?" I noticed that both Blanc and I perked up when she asked this.

"Is it the assassin's clan or the other one that you didn't know the name of?" now I **really** wanted to know, members of the Assassin's clan were extremely hard to come by. Members of the other clan, however, no one has ever found a member. If he really is one of those members, I have another reason to ask him to serve me _(she's not gonna tell you the original reason, but I'm sure you can guess)_.

"Fortunately for us, he's part of the other clan." Neptune immediately jumped up out of her seat.

"I call dibs!" Histoire facepalmed and sighed. I held up my hand in protest.

"Hold it, Neptune, Nick is **way** more familiar with Lastation than he is with Planeptune. Plus, Nick is also **my friend** , do you honestly think I'm just going to give him over to **you**?" Both Neptune and Vert were taken aback by my tone to this situation, but Blanc _(as usual)_ nods in agreement.

"I'd have to take Noire's side with this one. Not only would Nick be better off with Noire and Lastation, he could also work off all the damage he's caused from when he was working with Khronis." Neptune pouted, but nodded, knowing that Blanc was right. Thanks to Blanc, I now have a reason for him to serve me. I hear Vert sigh.

"I must agree with Blanc on this one Neptune, Nick could work off all his charges if he works with Noire. I would have loved for him to serve me, though." Vert had sparkles in her eyes. She mumbled something about 'butler outfits', that made Histoire and the rest of us cringe. I noticed that Nick had distanced himself from Vert, and with good reason.

"A-Anyway, he's told me that he remembers how to get his emotions back." I sat up straighter when Histoire said those words, I was more than a little happy to hear that.

"Well? Don't hide it from us." Blanc and Vert nodded in agreement, anxiously awaiting the news.

"He told me that he requires his gauntlet in order to be able to feel any emotion." I sighed in relief, at least this would be simple. Hopefully.

"So where's the gauntlet?" I'm hoping that the gauntlet will be close to Lastation. If that's the case, Nick and I can go alone. That'll leave us to some time to chat.

"The gauntlet is located in Lastation, surprisingly, it's under the basilicom." Neptune pouted when Histoire said this, I'm sure she was hoping that it was located closer to her.

"So that means we could just go get it now, right?" I crossed my fingers. I needed her to say yes so I could have a reason to take Nick **only**. I'm sure Histoire caught on to what I was trying to do, because she smiled and nodded.

"Yes, you can go immediately, there should be no enemies there so you can take Nick and retrieve the gauntlet by yourselves." YES! Successfully completed the objective. Operation: get alone time with Nick is a go _(it's not like she likes him or anything)_. QUIET YOU! _(NEVER XD)_.

"That's good. The sooner we get his emotions back, the better." everyone nodded in agreement and I grabbed Nick's hand and pulled him out of the room.

"Noire." Histoire called out to me and I stopped in my tracks and turned to her.

"Yes Histoire?" what could she possibly be wanting to tell me now?

"If you could be so kind, I would like you to return here with the gauntlet, there's something I want to confirm." I don't know what Histoire is getting at, but I'll come back here since she asked.

"Don't worry Histoire, I'll come right back here after we get the gauntlet." I transform and carry Nick to the basilicom. I have a strange feeling that this is not going to be as easy as Histoire told us it would be.

* * *

"Inner peace can be reached only when we practice forgiveness. Forgiveness is letting go of the past, and is therefore the means for correcting our misperceptions."

~Gerald Jampolsky~

* * *

(Nick's pov)

Oooh, switching POVs in the midst of the story, I like it _(thanks man)_. And the quote about inner peace is nice too _(hey man, I can be funny and give life lessons too)_. True that, anyway let's get going with that epic narration _(let's goooo XD)_.

My clan. How could I have forgotten my clan? Friends that I considered family, the trust we all had with each other. Not to mention the- "AAAUUUGG!" I let out a shrill scream of pain as I remember 'the betrayal'. The screams of agony, the strong scent of burning flesh, the boom of homes being destroyed. In the distance I see my parents, hanging limp from a tree, used as a horrid sign that our clan is now destroyed. It was all because of **them** , Craig, Tandum, and malak. I see them standing over the destroyed clan building, laughing like someone had just told the best joke in the world. I notice I'm surrounded by a dark void, and I'm sinking. I also take notice that I hear whispers saying things like 'I'll kill them' and 'hate' _(they say other things as well, I'm just not going to mention them right now)_. I've come to the realization that I'm literally being consumed by my anger and hatred for those three, but I don't want that to happen. I can't grab hold of anything to pull myself out, I'm stuck in here. I don't know if it is, but if this is a dream then get me out of it right now. The void is up to my neck now, and I'm slowly sinking deeper and deeper into the dark void. I reach up, hoping that I can grab onto something to pull myself out. There's nothing there. "I guess there's no getting out of this," I mumble as my head goes under. " _There goes my self control."_ I hear someone yelling, but it's muffled, I can't understand what they are saying. Then, outta nowhere _(it's John Cena!)_ , a voice clear as day rang out in my ear.

"Nick!" Tandum? What in hell's name is he doing here? Tandum pulls me out of the dark void and gives me the once-over. Unfortunately for him, this 'sentimental' moment didn't last as long as Cookie wanted it to _(hey! Don't call me out on that)_.

" **You**." I lunge at the defenceless Tandum and tackle him to the ground, punching him repeatedly. He cries out for mercy and in pain, but I don't stop until I realize that the void was coming back. "What the hell do you want asshat?" I asked with my hatred oozing out of every word I spoke. Tandum knelt before me and looked me straight in the eyes, determination written over his face.

"Nick...there's something I need to tell you" I honestly don't want to hear the bullshit he has to say, he's a traitor _(hahaha…star wars reference)_ and a murderer, he deserves to die. However, he did save me from that void, I'll admit that he **(hopefully)** still has **some** good in him.

"What do you need to tell me Tandum?" there were still some obvious hatred in that sentence, but I'm starting to cool down.

"I'm sorry Nick." WAT?! After everything he's done, he now wants me to accept his apology?

"Do you actually expect me to accept that apology?" I expected him to shroud in fear, but instead he shakes his head and puts his arms out to the side.

"No, I didn't. That's why I came here, I'm letting you kill me." my eyes widened in surprise at this statement. Tandum, one of the 'triple traitors', is letting me kill him as a way to say sorry? This was **way** too easy, but I'll take this free stress reliever. I lifted up my fist and was about to swing when **my** voice rang in my ear.

" _You sure you want to do this man?_ " of course I want to do this, I've wanted revenge ever since that day. I'm getting my revenge and then my family will finally be avenged _(Captain America fanboy much?)_. " _Did you ever ask him about his motive for betraying the clan? There's gotta be a reason._ " I never thought of that. There's got to be a reason, there's always a reason. I kneel down to his level and give him a devilish smile. "Before I kill you, I'd like you to tell me why you betrayed and murdered your **own clan**." I was expecting some generic 'I was paid to do it' or 'I always hated our damn clan'. I wasn't expecting him to start crying, though.

"I never wanted to do it..*sniff*...Malak and Craig forced me to...I NEVER WANTED TO HARM ANYBODY WAAAAAAAA!" So I made a good choice to listen to my subconscious. Tandum was completely innocent, it was the other two _(who are dead)_ that were at fault. No matter what he did, I really can't hate him knowing that. I stood him up and gave him a hug. He gasped in surprise.

"You know what Tandum?" he tensed up when I said that.

"Y-Yes Nick?" I squeezed a little tighter.

"I forgive you." I became blinded as Tandum started glowing. As I let go of him and backed away, I shielded my eyes and stared in awe as he began rising into the sky. There was a genuine smile on his face.

"Thank you for forgiving me." a bright flash of light caused me to close my eyes and turn around in an attempt to regain my eyesight. When I opened them, I was in a cave of some sort, Noire and K-sha standing a few feet behind me. At first I was confused, then I remembered the gauntlet and looked down at my arm. To my enjoyment, the gauntlet was right there on my arm. Right where it was supposed to be.

"Well we got what we came for, let's head back to Planeptune." I said after what must have been an extremely awkward silence. Noire nodded and transformed, carrying K-sha and I to the Planeptune basilicom.

I have a feeling that I had missed something very important back there...but what was it?

* * *

 _ **.:PostStory:.**_

 _ **Nick: No more post creditz?**_

 _ **BH: I can see why he changed it...there were no credits to be after.**_

 _ **Nick: well that's true.**_

 _ **BH: I'm still trying to figure out what that acid trip of a second half that was**_

 _ **Nick: I'm sure Cookie will explain in the next chapter. Right Cookie?**_

 _ **CC75: You of all people should know that's what imma do.**_

 _ **BH: HEY! what about me**_

 _ **Nick: You're not an OC, so you can't know him like I do. *sticks out tongue***_

 _ **BH: why you little...you wanna go?!**_

 _ **Nick: yeah I wanna go!**_

 _ **BH: COME AT ME THEN!**_

 _ **CC75: I'm just gonna end it here...This is CookieCreeper75...sinning off.**_


	9. Reapers Cry Blood

_**/Hey nerds**_

 _ **I'm baaaaack**_

 _ **I'm sorry that this took so long to get out**_

 _ **And It's time to D-D-D-D-D-DUEL!**_

 _ **Lol...what an old reference**_

 _ **But who cares, ONTO THE STORY!/**_

* * *

Chapter 9: Reapers Cry Blood

(Nick's pov)

"I was kinda hoping that we'd at least fight **one** enemy, but we didn't." Noire is, still, complaining about the lack of fighting that we did when we went to the cave. I don't see how that's a problem, in fact, I think it's a great thing that we didn't have to fight anyone. I'm sure as hell that I was in no fighting condition before retrieving the gauntlet.

"That's all good and dandy, Noire, but I'm more interested as to why Nick wasn't moving or responding for those first ten minutes of putting back on the gauntlet." man I knew that the goddesses wouldn't know, but not even **Histoire** knows about the wielder's ceremony? You disappoint me Histoire.

"You really don't know why, Histoire?" everyone turned and looked at me, confusion written all over their faces. I guess my clan was almost forgotten.

"I am afraid I do not know, would you be so kind to tell us?" man Histoire, you should really keep up with your history.

"The reason why I was frozen for so long was because I was going through the 'wielder's ceremony'. Histoire raised her hand like she was going to ask a question, but I kept talking. "the wielder's ceremony is one of few ceremonies that reapers, for example me, go through in their lifetime."

"HOLD IT!" and as usual, Neptune just has to say **something** in the middle of my explanation.

"What is it Neptune?" Histoire is obviously more than a little pissed that Neptune disturbed the info dump.

"I just want to ask, what's a reaper?" my eyes widened. Neptune actually asked a **good** question?

"That's...actually what I was wondering." it was clear that Blanc was surprised that Neptune was curious about something important _(SICK BURN!)_.

"You girls don't know what a reaper is either? They all shook their heads. This is going to be a long day.

"A reaper is a person who is dead or dying, basically there in jeopardy of losing their soul before they're supposed to." Noire looked like she was taking mental notes of all this,but all of this shouldn't be **that** important. I was going to continue, but if course Neptune had to cut in.

"So lemme get this straight, you're either dead or dying? I'd like to know how." Noire nodded in agreement. I sigh, knowing that Neptune would be asking questions constantly throughout my explanations.

"Yes, I'm supposed to be dead. I was supposed to be a miscarriage."

" **WHAT?!** " everyone in the room _(minus Histoire)_ yelled out in shock and surprise. I was expecting a reaction, but not like this.

"Believe it _(lol nice reference)_ , anyway, now let me continue telling you about reapers." everyone nodded and I was **finally** able to continue. "In order to keep ourselves alive for as long as we needed, we decided to take other people's souls to try and suffice for the lack of our own."

"But lemme guess, it work out exactly how you wanted it to?" man Neptune is on point today, why can't she be like this everyday?

"That's correct. It turns out that you need at least 10 souls to let a reaper live for another year, that may sound simple-"

"But no one wants to be killed, right?" Neptune was again, on point. Man she needs to **always** be this awesome.

"Right again, Neptune. So unfortunately, we had to resolve to murder...and lots of it. It wasn't a fun time for any of us." the room went silent, probably because they weren't expecting me to be so honest and direct with my words. The most likely reason, though, is that I just admitted that I'm a murderer. Well shit, I didn't think this through very carefully did I?

"Wait, you **kill** people? The population of Planeptune hasn't gone down...nor has any of the other continents." Well damn, Neptune **does** pay attention to her nation. That's actually surprising.

"We did, until we found out that we could steal the souls of ancient dragons and other enemies. That supplied the clan for a millennia, but recently we weren't finding as many enemies as we used to." I clenched my fist as I started to remember the newblood members disappearing because they couldn't sustain a regular amount of souls every day, it wasn't a very fun time for anyone.

"That's all well and good, but would you mind explaining this 'Wielder's Ceremony' for all of us?"

"Gladly, the ceremony is a simple test to make sure that the wielder isn't going to use the gauntlet for revenge. It's nothing interesting, really."

"I see, we'll that's all the questions I had. Anyone else want to ask Nick anything before we end this meeting?" nobody said anything. I was kinda expecting Neptune to ask more questions, guess not. "Then this meeting is over, you ladies may take your leave now." everyone said their goodbyes and flew off. Well that was, something.

"Wow, It's already dark out, that meeting took longer than I thought." Noire states as we embark on our flight home. She had been quiet for most of the way home, now when we're almost there…she wants to try and start up a conversation _(smooth Noire, smooth)_.

"Did you **seriously** not notice it before now?"

"O-o-of course I noticed, the quiet was becoming a little unsettling. I was just trying to start a conversation." I could see that her cheeks, despite the darkness, had turned deep red. I would have teased her a little more, but we had reached the basilicom. As she landed and….de-transformed? Untransformed? I don't know. _(How about 'reverted to normal'?)_ Sounds good. Noire landed, put me down and reverted back to normal. We walked into the, almost barren, basilicom, both of us ready to sleep. "You can have room 195, the room right across from Kei's. If you need **anything** at all, just come and ask me ok?" I nod and Noire goes into her room and closes the door.

"Welp, time to find my room." I whisper to myself as I wander the halls of the basilicom. "Let's see, 90-100, no. 100-110, not even close. 190-200, there we go." after what feels like an eternity, I've finally found the right hallway. "193, 194, 195, there it is. Now I have finally found my room, it's time for the sleeps. I jump into my bed _(yes ladies and homo men, he did strip before jumping into bed)_ and immediately pass out, sleep happily welcoming me.

* * *

(Noire's pov)

"If you need **anything** at all, just come and ask me, ok?" That's the last thing I told him before walking into my room. After I shut the door, I immediately slapped myself in the face. "What the hell is wrong with me, Telling him that he can ask me anything. I'm lucky he didn't ask me for….that. That's not important now, I'm tired and sleep is calling my name." I quickly change into my nightgown _(you could have at least gone into a little more detail with the stripping for the readers, I'm sure they want to know more about that sexy bod of yours)_ , like hell that's happening _(Oh believe me, it'll happen)_. I'm going to bed now, bye.

 _ **/**_ _ **DREAM SEQUENCE ACTIVATE**_ _ **/**_

"Uuuh, where am I?" I look around and see that I'm sitting up in my bed, I'm assuming that I've just woken up. "Guess I'll just walk about and see where this dream takes me this time." Just then, Nick walked into my room. He was wearing...a suit and tie? This dream was already becoming strange, Nick hated wearing fancy clothing.

"Morning, princess. You ready to go yet?" I stretched and let out a small moan _(that just caused all Noire fanboys to start fantasizing)_.

"Where are we going?" I acted like I was just groggy, you tend to forget some important things when you've just woken up.

"We are going to the sakura festival today, you deserve a little vacation with all the hard work you do." I'm glad **someone** recognizes my hard work, not many people do _(you are aware that this is a dream right?)_.

"Oh...alright just let me get ready" Nick nodded and walked out the door.

"I'll be waiting." he smirked as he closed the door behind him. I sometimes wonder what goes through his head. His expression, however, told me that I wouldn't want to know.

Dressed and ready, Nick and I flew to Leanbox _(where the festival was, duh)_. I looked over to Nick and saw him in his transformed state for the first time. He had white hair, ocean blue eyes, a black overcoat, and _(as far as she could see)_ a black shirt with a glowing red skull on it. I probably _(obviously)_ was staring at him for too long, because after awhile, he spoke.

"You've never seen me in this state, have you." his question, catching me off guard, caused me to fumble over my response.

"Y-y-yeah, it's my first t-time seeing you in t-t-t-that state." I can't believe myself. Even while transformed, I still get embarrassed when I get caught staring at someone. Nick chuckles and flies closer to me, causing my face to go a deeper shade of red.

"No need to be so nervous, Noire, it's just your curiosity taking root." he moved so close to my face that our foreheads touched, he was grinning the entire time. By this point, my face had found a completely new shade of red.

"I um, uh….." He seemed like he was going in for a kiss, I was at a loss for words. Then he moved away from my face.

"Here we are, Leanbox." Nick had, once again, toyed with my heart. Now that we hit our destination, the festival awaits us.

 _(Let's just skip to the important part of this dream sequence)_.

...After the party at Vert's place, Nick and I decided to head to the top of a hill to watch the fireworks. A few minutes into the romantic scene, Nick turns to me.

"Ya know, we've been together for awhile now." I have a feeling I know where this is going, but I'm just gonna wait and see.

"That's true, aside from the fact that you're my right hand man, you are my **boyfriend**." I'm hoping that I don't say that to him after this dream is over.

"That's true. Plus , we've been on many adventures and-oh what the hell I'm just gonna cut to the chase." Nick is clearly not good at setting the mood, but granted I'm not either.

"Cut to the chase?"

"Yeah, Noire, I want to ask you something." I turned to him to see him on one knee, was this really happening? _(No)_ SHUT IT WRITER! I gasped, knowing all to well what he was going to ask.

"Y-Yes Nick?" my eyes were sparkling with anticipation, even if this was a dream, this felt so real.

"I want to know if…" he pulls out a small box "...will you m-" his sentence was cut off by a large sword being stabbed through him, blood spurting over the ground and my body. Then, I hear a voice come from Nick's body.

"You don't deserve happiness, NOBODY DOES!" I was left in shock and sorrow as Nick laid there, lifeless, blood flowing everywhere. I couldn't help but start to cry.

"No, No, NOOOOOOOO!"

* * *

 _ **.:PostStory:.**_

 _ **CC75: FINALLY DONE!**_

 _ **Nick: The next chapter won't take so long to be uploaded, right?**_

 _ **Noire: Let's hope not, that took way longer than it should have.**_

 _ **CC75: I agree with you both, I was just stuck when it came to the proposal thing. Plus I lost this document for awhile.**_

 _ **Nick: Oh, well that probably sucked**_

 _ **CC75: It did**_

 _ **Noire: do you have any people to thank for following and favoriting?**_

 _ **CC75: I sure do, I have…**_

 _ **datriel917**_

 _ **Sly8991**_

 _ **dasher147**_

 _ **For favoriting and following my story, I love you all. Also thanks to the people who keep coming back.**_

 _ **Nick:**_ _ **dasher147**_ _**gets a high-five and a hug from me for following and favoriting Cookie.**_

 _ **Noire:**_ _ **dasher147**_ _**followed and favorited? Props to you pal.**_

 _ **Nick: Anywho, see you guys in the next outro.**_

 _ **Noire: bye.**_

 _ **CC75: don't forget to leave reviews peeps. anyways CookieCreeper OUT.**_


	10. Confessions

_**/Sup fam**_

 _ **I have returned**_

 _ **And MAI BODY IS READY!**_

 _ **Sorry that this took so long**_

 _ **let's move on to the story/**_

* * *

Chapter 10: Confessions

(Nick's pov)

My mom had always told me that the hardest part of every day was getting up out of bed to start it, and oh damn was she right. Right now, I'm struggling to remove myself from the comfort of this bed that I'm laying in.

"Gawd dammit, I need something to jolt me outta bed."

"GAH!" of course, right after I said that, I hear a scream coming from Noire's room. Why was I expecting something like that to happen? That's all I needed to make me jump out of bed, put my clothes on, and run over to Noire's bedroom door _(Uni and Kei were there as well)_.

"Are you OK, Noire?" Uni, looking like the house just caught fire, frantically knocked at the door. Kei, unlike Uni, looked calm and collected about this whole situation. I could tell she was worried, like me, but she didn't let her worry get the best of her.

"I'm alright, Uni, It was just a bad dream. There's no reason to be worried." Noire wasn't ok, I could tell from the shaking in her voice. She may have had a bad dream, but that bad dream seemed like it terrified her beyond belief. However, if Noire says that she's ok, I'll believe her.

"Well she says she's ok, let's just leave her be." I walk back to my room, not really expecting either of them to move from Noire's door. I got to my room and heard the door shut before I got a chance to close it. I turn around to see Kei giving me a super serious look _(even more serious than batman)_. "Something wrong Kei?" it's pretty obvious that something is wrong, why do I always ask dumb questions.

"Yes, Nick, something is wrong." her burning gaze is starting to terrify me, I've never seen her angry **ever**. She walks up to me, gets reeeeaaally close to my face, and stares me in the eyes. "I've been detecting small ounces of anti-energy around Noire ever since she introduced you to the rest of us. I want, no, I **need** to know if **you** have anything to do with that." I was hoping that nobody would catch whiff of that until later. It seems that kei, unfortunately, caught on sooner than expected.

"Well, I do have **something** to do with that," Kei looks like she's about to strangle me, I better day something fast. "Hold on Kei it's not intentional, it's something quite different." Looks like that calmed down, but she still looks like she's ready to pounce.

"Not intentional? How is that 'not intentional'? She's got that 'explain yourself' look on her face, guess I'll have to tell her.

"First things first, did you pay attention to the color?" her eyebrow raised _('which one'? You ask, whichever one you want)_ , almost like that was a strange question to ask. Well it is, honestly.

"It was black, but now it's turning red" Kei seems shocked. Has she really never heard of emotional energy?

"That is one of my emotions _(he doesn't have many of those)_. The type of anti-energy that I have will turn any emotion I feel into 'emotional energy.'" Kei eyes widened, but then went back into their normal position.

"So what specific emotion is that?" I can tell Kei has a good idea of what it is, she just wants me to tell her.

"Well I'll tell you this, the black energy is lust-" Kei dashed at me, and got me into a choke hold.

"So **that's** what you thought about Noire this entire time?!" Nothing but lewd and perverted thoughts about her?!" I phase out of the choke hold _(she had a pretty damn tight grip)_ and hold out my hands in protest.

"Woah, hold on there tiger, that was only at first. The black smoke is gone, right?" Kei stares at her 'watch' and calms down, somewhat.

"Yeah, it's red now. What's that color mean?" yup, I know that was a question she would ask eventually.

"That's color means amare _(that means 'love' in Latin)_."

"What does that mean?" I notice that she has a sharp object in her hand. She's not playing nice anymore. Then again, she never was.

"I have no clue, I only know what the original language says. I never figured out the translation." I'm lying, of course, I know damn well what it means.

"Oh, ok then." she lowers her sharp object, I still can't tell if it's scissors or a knife. She walks to the door and makes her way out. "I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions about you, that was out of line." she says as the door closes. Well that was, strange, but who cares. Uni is no longer at Noire's bedroom door, so that means I can know what's **really** going on here.

* * *

(Noire's pov)

"What the hell was that?." That dream was **way** too depressing and heart crushing to be normal.

"What was what?" I jump, not expecting Nick to be in the doorway. It was clear that he wanted to talk about something due to the look on his face.

"First off, you scared the hell outta of me. Secondly, it's about the dream I had."

"What happened in the dream?"

"N-n-nothing much happened." I'm sure that my face is now a deep shade of red, I have trouble lying about embarrassing things.

"Noire, I'm being serious, tell me everything." I understand that he wants to help, but telling him stuff like that is hard for me to do.

"I would like to, but it's really embarrassing." Nick has a devilish smile on his face, that usually tells me that I'm not going to like this.

"Would it have anything to do with me proposing to you?"

"HOW THE HELL DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT?!" His smirk turned into a smile, then he bursted out in laughter. I was expecting an awkward silence between us, but that's clearly not the case.

"I had the exact same dream last night." this is getting strange, how and why did we have the **EXACT** same dream.

"I wonder how and why we had the same dream." I give him a look and he nods, knowing exactly what I want.

"There's just one thing I want to ask you before I tell you what you want to know, have you been detecting any strange energy around you lately?" Now that he mentions it, I have seen this faint red mist around me. Was he causing that?

"Actually, I've been meaning to ask you about that."

"You have?" Nick raised an eyebrow, clearly questioning whether I've actually been wanting to ask him that.

"Yeah, there's been this strange faint red mist around me recently. Do you know anything about that?" Nick nervously scratched the back of his head, then chuckles a bit.

"Well...actually I'm the cause of that red mist."

"I figured as much, but why is it surrounding me and nobody else?" I see Nick twitch, then his cheeks turn a light shade of red.

"W-w-well you see, Noire, the c-color of that mist means 'amare.' Amare? Is that some kind of ancient language or something?

"What does 'amare' even mean?" Nick's cheeks turn a deeper shade of red, as he takes a deep breath.

"Amare means 'love' in a language called Latin." LOVE?! I can't believe it! Nick, all this time, has had a crush on me. How have I not noticed that? _(it's simple really. You don't pay attention to detail)_ CAN IT, WRITER!

"S-so that means…" I look at him, waiting for him to say those words I thought nobody would say to me.

"Yes, Noire…I love you"

* * *

 _ **.:**_ _ **POSTSTORY:.**_

 _ **CC75: That took way longer than I wanted it to**_

 _ **Nick:I wonder if there's anybody still waiting for this chapter**_

 _ **CC75: there probably is**_

 _ **Noire: the important part is, you finished it**_

 _ **CC75: true**_

 _ **Nick: don't forget to acknowledge the people who followed and favorited you**_

 _ **CC75: I know**_

 _ **CC75: I want to thank…**_

 _ **CaptainGrievous**_

 _ **Roboticninja369**_

 _ **For following and favoriting my story**_

 _ **Nick:**_ _ **Roboticninja**_ _**gets a hug from me for following and favoriting Cookie**_

 _ **Noire: well that's all, see you guys in the next chapter!**_

 _ **Nick: see you all next time!**_

 _ **CC75: don't forget to leave reviews! This is CookieCreeper75, sinning off.**_


	11. Phase Two

**_/Hey guys…_**

 ** _It's been awhile_**

 ** _...I've run outta puns and references to make in this section_**

 ** _GIVE ME MORE TO USE PLZ!_**

 ** _So ONTO THE STORY!_**

 ** _Chapter 11: Phase Two_**

 **/SOMEWHERE DEEP UNDERGROUND: LASTATION/**

"HAHAHA! Can you believe this?! A goddess and a reaper in a relationship, never thought I'd see the day." the mystery man, who was sitting on a throne, almost collapsed in laughter. After the laughing fit, the mystery man called over his henchman.

"You called sir?" the henchman was very confused, the mystery man never called him on the weekends.

"I did call you, Pupilli, come look at this." the henchman, now know as Pupilli, walked over to the mystery man. When Pupilli saw what was in the orb, he couldn't help but laugh along with his master.

"However this happened, I'm glad it did." after the laughing session the two had, Pupilli turned to his master. "Shall I begin phase two, master Malum?" Malum turned to his henchman, knowing that the question was going to be asked eventually.

"Yes, Pupilli, begin phase two." he turned to the orb, observing the happy look on the goddess' face. "Mark my words Black Heart…

...Lastation will be mine"

(Noire's pov)

"Wow. Noire has a friend and a boyfriend? Never thought she'd be first." After Nick and I confessed our love for each other, I proceeded to tell the girls all about it. What I didn't take into account was Vert's constant sex jokes, Neptune ranting on about how she'd thought I'd be the last person to get a boyfriend, and Blanc...Blanc simply said 'congratulations' and went back to her book so she's ok.

"Why is that so surprising?! Seriously girls, I HAVE FRIENDS!"

"Well from what you've told us, you have more than just a friend."

"Well, that is true." my face turned red.

"You are really lucky, Noire. You've got a boyfriend, you have the highest quality firewall, and your shares have skyrocketed." Vert's right, today has been nothing but positive.

"We should celebrate!" Neptune jumps up and gets close to me. I'd really like to know why she does this whenever she wants to ask a question. "Can we, Noire? Can we?"

"...You know what, yeah, let's do that." Neptune jumps up and dashes out of my room. I wonder where she's going.

/TWO HOURS LATER/

Neptune came back to the basilicom after about two hours with all of our friends. She brought Blake and Mercury into the mix, and a ton of balloons and streamers.

"Where did you get all this, Neptune?" I really hope Neptune didn't buy out my favorite party store, it has so many cute stuffed animals.

"I got it from a party store in the mall." whew, crisis averted.

"I know we just started a party, but we have a problem." I turn around to see Kei running up to me, with the share chart in her arms.

"What's wrong Kei?" I really didn't want to hear any bad news about shares, we just hit an all time high with them.

"I don't understand how, but a few minutes after the skyrocket, our shares crashed below twenty percent."

"WHAT?! but we just hit above eighty percent ten minutes ago!"

"Look for yourself." Kei held up the chart, there was no denying it. Lastation was at the lowest it's been since...ever.

"That's not even possible, shares never crash that quickly." I'm pissed, very pissed. The only way something like that could happen is if… "Someone is stealing Lastation's shares." everyone turned to me, confused by my statement. "It's something everyone should know. When one nation loses shares, another nation takes them. As you can clearly see, however, none of the other nations have gained shares." I pulled out a global chart of the nation's shares. "as you can clearly see, as our nation's shares are dropping, but none of the other nations have gained any shares." Vert raised her hand, she probably wanted to know how I got the share charts for each nation. I was going to let her ask her question, but then the sound of books hitting the ground came into my ear, then a scream.

"SOMEBODY HELP! UNI PASSED OUT!" I burst into a sprint towards the nearby hallway. When I arrive there, I see Nepgear shaking an unresponsive Uni. I turn to Kei, who followed me, and put my hands on her shoulders.

"Kei...how many shares do we have?" Kei flinched when I smiled, she knows that I've reached the point of snapping.

"When have ten percent."

"Someone get Uni to a bed. Nick, you-" I looked around and saw that Nick wasn't in the building. Where did he go?

(Nick's pov)

"Uni is in a coma, we need to find out who's responsible for this." half an hour after Uni passed out, Vinnie and I traveled to the largest forest in Lastation.

"I do agree with you, but maybe you should have told Noire where you were going."

"I do agree with you on that," I scratch the back of my head "but I left my phone at the basilicom." Vinnie facepalmed and sighed.

"Speaking of Noire, I heard that you two are a couple now."

"Yeah, we are." I started walking east. That's the direction where the anti-energy was coming from. "We can talk more about that when we're done." Vinnie nodded and followed me.

One hour later, Vinnie and I came into a clearing.

"This is where it's supposed to be." Looking around the clearing, there seemed to be nothing here. "We both know where this is going, right Vinnie?" He nodded and summoned his dual-edge spear.

"There has got to be a switch around here somewhere." I looked around the clearing one more time, and still found nothing.

"Is it possible that it's a magic lock? like the ones back home." I shook my head.

"That shouldn't be possible, this dimension doesn't have that kind of security." I sighed and walked to the center of the clearing. "I guess it's worth a try, though." I put my hand on the ground and pulsed my void energy. Nothing happened. "I told you it wouldn't-"

"NICK!" Vinnie shouted from the edge of the clearing, "the trees are glowing!" I looked ahead and saw that the trees were glowing purple.

"OBJECTIVE: RETRIEVE THE KEY TO UNLOCK THE DOOR." I don't know how, but this person has a tier five magic lock.

This is gonna be a long day.

 ** _.:PostStory:._**

 ** _CC75: I AM SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG!_**

 ** _Nick: writers block again?_**

 ** _CC75: that, and school started back up_**

 ** _Noire: well at least it's done_**

 ** _CC75: also, I want to thank_**

 ** _Elithrade_**

 ** _ShadowSlayerPT_**

 ** _Piggyslayer1235_**

 ** _LinleyBaruch_**

 ** _For favoriting and/or following my story_**

 ** _Nick: welp, that's all folks_**

 ** _Noire: goodbye_**

 ** _CC75: this is CookieCreeper, signing off_**


	12. KillZone

**_/Hey peeps_**

 ** _I've returned_**

 ** _Hope you're ready for another FANTASTIC chapter_**

 ** _Let's get into this shit!/_**

Chapter 12: KillZone

(Noire's pov)

"Did you find anything?" Kei shakes her head.

"Nothing at all, your shares just seemed to...disappear." I stand up and walked out of the room Uni is in, Kei following suit.

"I don't get it, shares just don't disappear." I stop in my tracks, "unless they're getting transformed into anti-energy." I turn to the right and fast walk towards my work room (A.K.A. her bedroom).

"Lady Noire, you and I both know that no object, or machine, exists that can turn share energy into anti-energy." I know that Kei and I discussed this before, but that was years ago. Someone might have actually built a device that can transform share energy. I need to find out who they are and why they are doing this, and fast.

(Nick's pov)

"Where the hell did this guy get a tier five magic lock?" Vinnie shrugs and charges the golem from the left, I jump out of the way of an incoming rocket *BOOM* and lob one of my broadswords at the golem. "detonación!" my broadsword explodes and destroys the launcher on the golem's shoulder. The golem roars and swings and Vinnie. Vinnie holds out his spear.

"Nature, consume my enemies." vines appear from the large magic circle that formed at Vinnie's feet. The vines wrap themselves around the golem's arm and twist it clean off. The golem releases a cry of pain and falls over. Vinnie walks up to the golem's head and stabs a blue gem located in the back. "That should be it for this one, but where's the key?"

"If it's anything like the other tier five magic locks, we've got to kill more of these golems." two more golems, a steel and a fire type, land in the center of the clearing. Why did I have to trigger an event flag?

(Noire's pov)

"Lady Noire, I'm sure you have one, but what's the plan if this one doesn't work." I don't answer Kei. I keep typing commands to the scanner, hit enter, and pull up the big screen.

"Nothing?" I cross my arms.

"So, what's the plan now?" Kei takes a seat on the black leather couch that's right next to the window.

"We're not done yet, Kei." I press the voice command button on the screen. "Tex, I need a pulsing scan asap." A metallic voice comes from the speakers.

"Right away, Lady Noire." I look back at the big screen and see a giant black mark located in the middle of the forest. It keeps appearing at different levels of power, and sometimes none at all.

"If the anti-energy signal is pulsating like that, it must mean that there's a fight going down between two anti-crystal users. We must be careful." I nod and transform, picking up Kei.

"Nepgear can watch Uni for us, I need you with me." Kei nods and gets her plasma rifle. She gives me a nod.

"Let's go then." I walk out the front door and fly off. I notice citizens waving at me as I fly over them, unknowing of the massive share drop that could put them all in danger.

(Nick's pov)

"Huelga Matar!" (Translation: Killing Strike) I charge the steel golem again, my sword glowing red. The strike hits the golem, cutting it in half this time. The fire golem roars over the death of his comrade and charges at me. Vinnie tries to hold it down with his vines, but they burn. I really hope he didn't think that would work.

"Power Jab!" Vinnie lunged at the golem, slashing it with his spear. The left arm fell off and dissipated into a million pixels. The golem continued to charge, despite only having one arm. I lifted my broadsword, ready to finish the job.

"DeadStrike." My broadsword morphed into a scythe. I jump up, hold the glowing scythe, and slam it down on the golem. The beast catches me with its hand, it's left hand, and throws me to the ground. "ARH DAMN! This jackass has a regen ability." I struggle to stand up straight. When I do, I limp over to a tree that's next to me.

"Swift Strike!" My vision is slightly blurred, but I can make out Vinnie's attacks.

 _He's beginning to struggle, I've got to help him. That bastard has a power drain ability as well._

"HEY ASSHAT!" A flaming white eye turns to me, preparing a fireball to lob at my face. "Try this on for size. BLOODRAIN!" I make a cut in my hand to let blood spill out. The blood bends and shifts to create my enlarged broadsword, BloodRain. I see Vinnie shake his head.

"Don't do it, Nick. I don't want a repeat of last time." I dash at the flaming golem. I'm not letting the void use me, not this time.

"FALL INTO THE VOID, WEAK-WILLED ONE!" I jump over the golem and drive my sword into its head, then hop down in front of it. "Estás terminado." A large pillar of red light engulfed the golem...and the entire clearing.

 _I think I went overboard._

(Noire's pov)

"Are you sure it's this way?" We've been flying for about ten minutes, and we haven't seen any clearing at all. I'm beginning to doubt Kei's words...again.

"Lady Noire," Kei is good at keeping her cool, but I can tell she's getting pissed. "I've told you thirty-seven times that if we were going the wrong way, I would say something."

"I apologize, Kei," I sigh and blow a strand of hair away from my face, "I just need confirmation that we're on the right track-AHHHHH!" I hold my ears as a high-pitched noise invades them. I face the direction the noise came from to see a pillar of light, a big one.

"I think that's the confirmation you were looking for." She's right. I have no clue how far away that is, but we need to get there fast. As soon as the light disappeared, I took off as fast as possible towards the lingering anti-energy signal.

After half an hour of flying I had slowed down, the anti-energy taking its toll on me. I had to land and revert back to my human form.

"Lady Noire, you might wanna see this!" Kei had gone to look up ahead for the clearing. Judging by her voice, it's not far away. I jog to get to Kei. Kei points to what was supposed to be a clearing, which is now a giant crater. I hear laughter coming from the crater, and look into it. I see Nick and, I think his name is Vinnie, laying on the ground.

"Nick?"

(Nick's pov)

The noise stopped, and so did my voice. I wasn't dead, that much was obvious, but my body didn't want to move. My vision, blurrier now, started fading to black. A billion questions fly through the my head

 _Am I dying? Did I use so much power that I paralyzed myself? What happened to Vinnie? Did I kill him? How big and bright was the pillar I just made? I don't wanna die here._

Someone started to shake me. I'm hoping it's Vinnie, that would be a relief. The person shook harder, telling me to open my eyes, to speak, to move, to do something. I try moving my arms, but they won't move. I try to open my eyes. I did a bit, but not enough to get the person's attention. I try to move my lips to say the guardian's motto, and it works.

"Para la vida...para el amor….para ella" All the energy I used was coming back fairly quickly, but not quick enough. The person, who is Vinnie, freezes when he hears my voice for a split second.

"You're a wreck. Never scare me like that again, OK?" Vinnie pulls out a regen potion from his satchel and pours the red liquid down my throat, my energy coming back even faster. I need to laugh, laughter is what I need right now.

"I guess you could say that I was **light** headed. Hahaha." I'm hoping that Vinnie will laugh as well, or at least smile.

"Pfft, you sure **shined** brighter than a diamond." We both burst out laughing, the mood taking a 180.

After ten minutes of light puns, a familiar voice calls out to me.

"Nick?" _Mierda_ , that's Noire.

"Heh, hey Noire, you missed the party." I stand up, only to collapse into Vinnie's arms. "OK, I'm not ready to stand on my own yet."

"Don't push yourself, Nick, you need to rest." He's right, but we need to fix this. I lay back in the dirt, sighing in defeat. Noire and Kei walk down and sit down next to us, concern written all over their faces.

"What are you doing out here, Nick?" She's out here for the same reason as me; stopping the bad guy and saving the day. I know that for sure.

"Same reason as you. Sorry for not calling first." Noire runs a hand through my hair, which is all black now, and gives me a reassuring smile.

"It's alright, just don't scare me like that ok." I give her a light nod, then chuckle.

"Heh, I thought you'd slap me in the face and call me 'baka'." Noire shrugs.

"I'll do that when we're not in danger."

"Hey, Nick." I look over at Kei. "What's that glowing orb over there?" We all look where Kei points. With out a doubt, there is an orb over there. Vinnie goes over and grabs the orb, a smile plastered across his face.

"This is it, the key." Thank the Lord. I'm so glad it wasn't the builder magic lock, you have to gather five parts of a key.

"Key for what?" Vinnie holds up the orb and throws it into the ground, shattering the fragile orb. The pieces glow brighter and form an actual key.

"KEY ACCEPTED, PREPARE FOR TRANSPORT."

"Transport? What does that me-AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" Noire screams when we all get sucked into the teleporter.

*sigh* Lets do this

 ** _.:PostStory:._**

 ** _CC75: that didn't take long_**

 ** _Nick: that's because you have so much free time_**

 ** _Noire: did you get expelled?_**

 ** _CC75: no, I just do my work on time_**

 ** _Noire: well that's good_**

 ** _CC75: yeah it is_**

 ** _Nick: I have a question_**

 ** _CC75: what is it?_**

 ** _Nick: why do you have such bad cliffhangers?_**

 ** _CC75: because I'm not a good writer_**

 ** _Noire: you're great for a beginner_**

 ** _Nick: while I do agree with you, Cookie, could you try a little harder please_**

 ** _CC75: I don't like making promises, but I'll try_**

 ** _Noire: can we move on now?_**

 ** _Nick: that's what he was about to do_**

 ** _CC75: this chapter has one shoutout, and that shoutout goes to…._**

 ** _RedBurningDragon_**

 ** _For favoriting and/or following me and my story_**

 ** _Nick: welp, later peeps_**

 ** _Noire: goodbye everyone_**

 ** _CC75: don't forget to leave a review!_**

 ** _By by!_**


	13. The Beginning of the End

_**/oh would you look at the time...**_

 _ **...IT'S HIGH NOON-I MEAN STORY TIME!\\\**_

Chapter 13: The beginning

 **← la aventura comienza →**

"Where are we?" I open my eyes and look around. This place is oddly familiar.

"I'm pretty sure that we're in the base of the bad guy." if this place is what I think it is, we might be here for a while.

"We're not in Lastation, that's for sure. Do you know where we are, Nick." I give her a shrug.

"Obviously not. Why would I know about the lair of our enemy?" I stand up and stretch, a yawn escaping my mouth. "Let's get going." I begin walking down the long and dimly lit hallway, the others following closely behind me.

After ten minutes of walking and trying to open locked doors, we come to a large door.

"Spanish?" Vinnie, while looking for a switch, notices that there's a sign above a button. "Nick, what does this say?"

"Hmm. ' _Ascensor Superficie_ '. Surface Elevator?." Vinnie gives me a surprised look.

"Don't you have one of those back home, a tunnel system below your...capital building…" This can't be happening, somehow...someway.

We're home.

 **← bienvenido a casa, maestro →**

"Nick doesn't look too well, what's going on?" I shrug

"I'm just as clueless as you are." I tap Nick's shoulder. "Earth to Nick, you ok?" Nick flinches and blinks a few times, finally coming back to the land of the living.

"Yeah, I'm ok. It's just something I've forgotten about." I'm sure that he's not telling the truth, but i'm not going to pester him right now.

"Nick, do you remember how these things work?" Vinnie pulls on a lever with all his effort, but it doesn't budge. Nick walks over and looks at the lever. He points at a sign.

"electromagnético interruptor. This is a electromagnetic switch, which means that we need to turn off the lock." Nick snaps his fingers and a flashlight appears in a glow of light. He beckons us to follow him through a door and continues walking, clearly looking for something.

"Where are we going?" This place is way too dark and spooky for me, I want to get out of here.

"We're going to find the switch so that we can use the elevator." he stops at a ladder, shines his light on a pad full of colorful buttons, and begins to climb the ladder.

"I wonder how he knows what to do with that pad." Kei crosses her arms and taps her finger on her chin. "Could it be that this is his hometown?" we both look at Vinnie, I forgot he was even here, he chuckles.

"I'm surprised it took you that long to figure it out." he turns his head towards Nick, but continues talking. "Not only is this his hometown, he's the ruler over this area. The 'land of darkness', tierra de la oscuridad." his slow intake of breath, and the long sigh afterward, tell me that not many good things come from being here.

"Why do you look so sad, Vinnie?" He looks at me, confusion over his face.

"What?"

"Even though you two are home, you guys don't seem happy about it. Why is that?" He stares up at Nick then looks back to me.

"This place is one of the most dangerous to live in out of the four lands you can live in. Many people have been slaughtered, there's always a shootout going on between the Black Warriors and T.O.P. Anybody insane enough to live here will usually result in them being killed or hospitalized." I notice him begin to shake, he's breaking down. "The only reason people live here is because there A) to poor to move out, or B) believe that Nick can fix the corruption of this place. What they fail to realize is that no matter how hard Nick works, the corruption still exist because 90% of all business benefit in some way shape or form from what goes on here. So they'll never change, and Nick fails to realize this." he clenches his fist.

"Oh I realize that." we all jump as Nick, without us noticing, jumps down from the ladder. He puts a hand on Vinnie's shoulder. "I just don't want to let my people down. If they want me to fix this, then I will." he beckons us to follow him.

As we turn the corner to get back to the elevator, we see a girl standing in front of the elevator door. She turns to us. I notice that the young girl is wearing a maid outfit, and that she's holding a large sword. I begin to draw mine, only to be stopped by Nick. He walks up to the girl and puts his hand on her shoulders, kneels down, and kisses her, right on her damned lips.

"NICK, WHAT THE HELL?!"

 **← Estoy tan contenta de que podamos estar juntos de nuevo →**

*smooch* I'm just waiting for Noire to scream at me, she has no clue who and what Rin is.

"NICK, WHAT THE HELL?!" our mouths part from each other, I walk her over to a very pissed Noire.

"Noire, relax, this is Rin. She is my personal android. What I just did was a DNA pass code, now she knows that it's me." I run my hand through her long, blond hair, causing her to giggle. Goddammit, Max, you've found my weakness...anything that's cute. Noire practically has steam coming out of her ears. "Anyway, say 'hi', Rin." Rin steps forward and hold out her hand to Noire.

"Hello, miss, it's very nice to meet you. I'm Rin." Rin turns and notices Kei standing next to Noire. "What are your names?" Kei steps forward and shakes Rin's hand.

"Hello, Rin, my name is Kei." Kei takes a step back and nudges Noire forward. She reluctantly shakes Rin's hand.

"Hey there, Rin, I'm Noire. I hope we can get along well." I could call out Noire's BS on that, but I'll be kind this time. Rin spins around and happily latches herself to my arm, causing Noire to give out a small growl of anger.

"Calm yourself, Noire, it's not like she's my lover. You could latch to my other arm off you want." she mumbled something about 'robotic lovers' and latched on my arm as we walked to the elevator.

I detached myself from the girls so I could pull the lever. I hear the click of the switch activating and the hissing of the airlock on the door turning off. The door opened to reveal a chamber big enough to fit us all.

"Let's get going." we all pile into the elevator, Noire attaching herself to me. It's really annoying that she doesn't trust me around Rin, but I can respect where she's coming from.

We sat there in silence, nobody wanting to talk. The elevator rose towards the surface, the sound of grinding gears filling up the silence. Nobody knows what to expect when those doors open up, not even me. There could be a war going on, or the 'KillZone Plage' could have infected the masses and started another mess for me to clean up. I know the ride is short, but it felt longer because of the eery silence. The grinding stopped, a click and hiss could be heard. Then the sound of metal grinding as the doors slid open rang, irritating my ears.

"Didn't you say you were going to get a new elevator?" Vinnie rubs his ears as he steps out of the elevator, the others quickly following suit.

"I was planning on it, but other things took priority." I look up at the large screen in what looks to be my living room, I smile as I see the flashing red light. "Hey, Leal, I know you're awake!" the lights, TV screens, and computer monitors all started flickering on and off. Then a voice replied.

"Reconocimiento de voz completa, bienvenida de nuevo." I gave a sigh of satisfaction. It's good to be home.

"Cambio de idioma, Inglés." the screens went black, Leal switching his language program.

"What just happened?" Noire looks around.

"Leal is switching his language to English so you can understand him." the power came back on, and so did Leal.

"Welcome home, master Nick, it has been quite sometime since we've last spoken." I forgot that I gave him that British accent, I don't remember why I did it either.

"Hey, Leal, gimme a quick status report." The large screen in the living room displayed the continent. The image terrified me, there were so many red and black dots surrounding the last city. I freeze in fear, ser maligno could actually overpower us.

The last city, _última ciudad_ , is the only place that is safe to live on this hellish continent. We were ok at first, but then the attacks became bigger and lasted longer. The people ran towards the capital, begging for help. The leader at the time, Autoservicio, didn't do anything to help his people. He laughed and told them to 'wait it out.' The people revolted in response to this, overthrowing him and electing a new leader. I wasn't the first leader, but I sure as hell did the most to save this place. I set up guard towers, helped build homes, organized a proper army, destroyed large hives of _criadores_ , killed many high ranking _guerreros espada_ , and even managed to injure the _espíritu temiendo_ ( _That's the most powerful enemy of the última ciudad_ ). Even after all that, Dios miedo can still grow his army.

"OK, change of plans." I turn around to look at everyone in the room. "Before we go find your villain, we need to take care of mine. Leal, sound the alarm, we're going to war."

 **← vive o muere →**

"Contacting troops, evacuating civilians, preparing defences, loading cannons, preparing airstrikes, displaying war map. Master Nick, we are ready for war...and hell." Nick grabbed the oversized sword from Rin and slung it on his back. He turned to Vinnie and pointed at the door on the far right of the living room.

"Your stuff is in there, if you're going to join me, grab it and let's go." He snapped his fingers and a section of the wall opened up to reveal a portal. Nick turned to me. "Are you coming or not?" he jumps into the portal, not waiting for my answer.

"I don't know about you, but I'm helping." Kei loads her pistol and jumps into the portal.

"Is that even a question?" I transform and leap through the portal.

 **← terminar →**

 **.:PostStory:.**

 ** _CC75: another chapter down_**

 ** _Nick: what took you so long?_**

 ** _CC75: battlefield one and I was working on Uni's story for a bit_**

 ** _Noire: isn't she in a coma?_**

 ** _CC75: yeah, no shit Noire, it's mostly focusing on Jack at the beginning_**

 ** _Noire: oh...that makes sense_**

 ** _Nick: just like this story focused on me at the beginning_**

 ** _CC75: anyway, I want to thank_**

 ** _CrypticChaos29_**

 ** _Bm3242_**

 ** _nico2411_**

 ** _And_** ** _kyle152091_**

 ** _For following and favoriting me and/or my story._**

 ** _Nick: you people are awesome_**

 ** _Noire: that's all, bye bye_**

 ** _Nick: later guys_**

 ** _CC75: don't forget to leave reviews_**

 ** _CookieCreeper OUT!_**


	14. The Calm

**_Before we begin, I would like to tell you that I've got a new story for you people. It's already posted so I'm assuming that some of you have already read it. Just in case you haven't, though, go check it out. Also there will be a Christmas special (hopefully) on Christmas Day about everyone coming together for a Christmas celebration so chapters will not come out as fast (not that they were ever fast)._**

 **➡No Mercy⬅**

Chapter 14: The Calm...

As I drop in from the teleport, I take in my surroundings. There are the screams of soldiers getting acid pours on them, the loud boom of the suicide crawlers taking someone to hell with them, numerous calls for medics, the sound of the DragonSlayer cannons firing at the mega crawlers, and the cries of pain as death wants to see them suffer for just a bit longer. I spot Jamieson, a well respected general and a good friend of mine, hiding behind Camión Grande, our biggest AI controlled assault truck, and checking a map and the MIA and KIA spreadsheets. I bolted over to him, making sure to check my surroundings for any enemy that might attack. Sure enough, a slasher jumped out from the nearby bushes most likely thinking it's got the jump on me. Using the momentum from my running, I roundhouse kick it and, with a little help from my spike tipped combat boots, smash it's head into the ground. I slide next to the hiding Jamieson and tap him on the shoulder.

"Jamieson, give me a status report!" recognising my voice, Jamieson pulled up a chart.

"As you can see sir," he points at the blue line that's dropping quickly, "the enemy's forces are quickly dying off on the southeast, south, southwest, and northeast side." he points to a black and a green dot, which is where we are. "However, on the northwest side, there are only three dozen troops left. That includes us." That's not good, not at all. If this keeps up, we're going to be surrounded.

"Where are the other troops? We need to attack together if we're going to survive." I launch a throwing knife at the head of a frogger that tried to pounce on top of us, the tip melting because of the acid pouring out of the Frogger's head. Jamieson have me a nod of thanks and beckoned for me to follow him into a cave where I see all of the troops, jumping up into attention when they saw me.

"Be at rest, boys, we've got a long day ahead of us." they all went into rest, but still stood. I guess that my trainers taught them well. "Take a seat, we need to talk first." they all sat at once, ready to receive a master plan. "First things first, what weapons do you have, and how much ammunition do you have?" one of the younger soldiers stands up and salutes.

"Sir, we all have the standard issue assault rifles with ten to twelve rounds each, sir." I saluted back at him and he sat back down where he was before getting up.

"Okay, that's better than I thought. So what we need to do is fight our way to the northeast side and meet up with whoever is there, then take out all enemies on the north half, after that we will meet up with the guys down south and take out the master, El Dragón. Any questions?" The soldiers looked at one another and shook their heads, except for one older soldier who stepped up and saluted.

"Sir, shouldn't we clear out the remaining enemies here first, sir." I gave him a salute and he went back to his spot.

"That's actually a good idea, so let's clear out the enemy presence here then move on to the northeast. Let's move!" The boys quickly scramble to get their weapons and ammunition ready for the fight, I hear the sound of someone falling through the teleporter, a loud * **THUMP** * becoming audible when they hit the ground. I step outside to see both Kei and a transformed Noire on the ground, Kei looking like she's in pain from the fall.

"Could you kindly get off of me, Lady Noire?" Noire picks herself up, offering Kei a hand after she brushes herself off.

"Sorry, Kei, I think that the teleporter is busted." Kei gets up with the help of Noire and checks her pistol.

"There's a glitch in the system, the teleporter will jump two people at once if they go in within a certain timeframe." I scratch the back of my head, slightly embarrassed that I forgot to ask Max to fix that. "I've been meaning to fix that actually."

"So what exactly is going on here? Where is everyone?" I point at the cave where my soldiers are getting ready.

"They are getting ready to head out towards the east after we kill all of the enemies here." As if to confirm what I was saying, the soldiers came out into the small clearing that we were standing in. One of them, a muscular man with a large mustache, steps forward and salutes.

"Sir, we're ready to move on your command, sir." I give him a salute and he falls back into his position.

"Alright, men, I want half of you to cover the perimeter while the rest of us go find the ringleader. Carry heavy?"

"AIM STEADY!" The soldiers scatter to their positions, callouts on positions becoming audible after a few seconds.

"So what do we do?" Noire said as she summoned her sword.

"You ladies are coming with Jamieson and I. We could use some extra firepower." I wave Jamieson over towards us and we begin to track down the ring leader.

Let's hope he's not expecting us.

 **➡️it❤️matters⬅️**

"You ladies are coming with Jamieson and I. We could use the extra firepower." As Nick calls over Jamieson, Kei taps my shoulder.

"Do you have any clue what we're doing?" I shake my head.

"I'm just as clueless as you are. If I knew anything besides "we're fighting the villain", I would tell you." Kei gives a frustrated sigh, she doesn't like being held in the dark for something so important.

"Okay," Nick comes over with a tablet in his hand, a smile creeping in his expression. "I've got good news and bad news."

"What's the bad news?" Nick shows us his tablet.

"The bad news is that the ringleader is hiding back at his homebase, which is surrounded by froggers and bashers. The good news, however, tells us that there's a secret back entrance." Kia gives a sigh of relief.

"For a second there, I thought you were going to say that the good news was that you found the ringleader." Jamieson starts laughing uncontrollably, almost like he just heard the funniest thing ever.

"That actually was part of the good news." I guess that's why he was laughing so hard, but that doesn't matter right now.

"So when are we gonna leave for the ringleader?" Nick snaps his fingers twice, which causes the soldiers to shift into a square shape.

"Right now." Nick claps his hand four times, which causes the soldiers to stomp twice and begin marching.

 **TIME SKIP**

"Hold it." Everyone stops as Nick and Jamieson move ahead to check the entrance.

I sit down, my legs worn out because I reverted back to my human form and had to walk for so long on uneven ground. Kei takes a seat next to me, clearly worn out as well, and hands me some water.

"You need to drink some, you'll feel much better once you do." I took a small sip, and I could taste healing potion within the drink. I gave my thanks as my body slowly healed from the abuse that the earth gave me.

Just as I began to drift off into my own little happy place, I hear rustling in the bushes behind me. I snap back into battle mode, adrenaline rushing through me. Sword drawn, I step closer, ready to cut anything into pieces. Kei, also being alerted by the sound, draws her gun.

"Calm yourselves, it's just me." Nick steps out of the bushes with Jamieson in tow, both looking out of breath. "Alright gather 'round, I've got the entrance plan." We both lower our weapons and join the group that has formed around Nick. "So there are two snipers watching from towers here," he points at two yellow boxes on his tablet, "along with a six-man squad of crawlers guarding the entrance here." He points at a long blue square that's in front of a green dot. "So what we're going to do is take Charlie and Delta squads to deal with the snipers." he sets up two red rectangles and marks them with a 'C' and a 'D' with a solid line snaking towards the snipers. "If done quietly, the rest of us can gun down the crawlers before they know what hit them. Do you understand?" Some of the older soldiers snapped back into attention, clearly out of habit.

"Yessir." They all solute and break up into their respective groups. After everybody is situated, Nick turns to me.

"Hey, Noire."

"Yes?"

"Could you and Kei stay back until we breach the lair?" That actually surprised me, I thought he was going to ask me to be in the front lines.

"Yeah, we can." I sit back down in front of the tree and allow myself to fall asleep, Kei doing the same.

I might be here a while.

 **➡only one chance⬅**

"Charlie, are you in position?" With Alpha and Bravo squads already in position with me, we wait for Charlie and Delta squad to get into position. It's becoming increasingly exciting to look at. If we mess up once, it could be game over.

"This is Charlie squad, we're in position." We all give a sigh of relief knowing that one hard part is over.

"Delta, do you read, Delta?"

"* **static** *" shit, this doesn't sound good. If Delta squad got intercepted, we would have only taken out one sniper.

Five minutes of calling for delta and still no response, I'm gonna have to go over there and see what happened.

"You guys stay here, I'm going over to look for Delta squad." I jump from the bushes we were hiding in to one of the tree branches hanging above us. I look over at Delta's position, and see nobody there. I leap onto another branch, balance wavering slightly. I drop, grab the branch, and swung onto a trunk of another tree, hanging on with my knife. After climbing up, I freeze when I hear a group of barbarians chatting over a giant hole. I notice that there speaking Indonesian.

"Well that was unexpected," one of them say as the circle the pit, "and here I thought we would have had to fight them." So that's what happened, they were ambushed; at least they were going to be had the ground not caved in from under them.

"Well yeah, but now there inside the base." My eyes widen when a different barbarian mentions this. We could take this route instead, but I need to take out these barbarians first. Knowing this, I launch a sound canceling grenade to confuse them, then lunge from the tree straight into one of the barbarians. The other barbarians became alarmed to my presence and charged at me, clubs ready to strike. I dogged one attack, but got scrapped in the arm by another. Grabbing one of the barbarian's arms, I launched him into a tree, knocking him out (or it could have killed him). One of them tries to swipe my legs, which earns him a spiked boot to the face. Picking up the body of the now dead barbarian, I chuck the corpse at the remaining three. Two barbarians get knocked over while the one only stumbles slightly, giving me an opening. I charge with my knife and take a jab at him, he sidesteps and pounds his club into my back, causing my vision to blur slightly and lose my balance and fall. Noticing the opening, the three run at me, clubs ready. I've managed to spin around far enough to fling my knife at one of the the grey blurs, his mouth opening in a silent scream of agony as the knife embeds itself into his throat. Unfortunately, the other two have gotten to me by this point. The first barbarian body checks me into a nearby tree while the second one puts a club right into the back of my head, knocking me to the ground and making stars appear in my vision. This quickly goes away because of my rapid healing ability, allowing me to make a quick move. I roll out of the way of another clubbing and trip the other barbarian, making him drop his club. I quickly grab it, jump up, and beat down the standing barbarian, his head exploding from the force of my hit. I stomp in the last barbarian's has and leap down the hole, Delta squad immediately coming into my line of sight.

When they notice me, they all solute.

"Sir, we've found a secret entrance, sir." I give a tired solute and take cover near them.

"That's good, but why didn't you radio in?" One of the soldiers tosses me their earpiece, it looks like it's been burned. I give a nod of understanding and check my earpiece, it's fine. "Hey, Alpha." The loudness of the feedback makes me pull out my earpiece and hold my ear in pain. "What was that?" I look back at the hole, realizing that I'm going to have to climb back up to send out a signal. "Stay here, I'll be back." I use my ability 'power jump' and escape the hole. I put my earpiece back in my ear, excited to tell everyone the news. "Alpha, come in, Alpha."

"Yessir, this is Alpha squad, what's going on with Delta?" I have a large smile on my face.

"Tell everybody to come over to Delta's position, we've got an awesome plan B."

 **➡️plan B⬅️**

"*yawn* that was a nice nap." I stand up and stretch, giving out a small moan as I did. I notice that Kei was already up and about, chatting away with one of the soldiers.

"...mandatory that at least half of the squad knows English because of a truce between us and Starok Lümad. They provide us with healers while we provide them with a nearly unbeatable force."

"Really? So do the healers need to know your language as well?" Well it looks like Kei was already starting to get some information about how this world works, I might as well start doing that as well.

"Glad to see you're awake, lady Noire." I sit down and Kei hands me what smells like green tea. I give her my thanks and take a seat. Taking a sip of my tea, I notice that there's some lemon and a hint of mint in it.

"Wow, this is really good, who made this?" One of the soldiers that's standing in front of a pot raises his hand, giving me a little wave.

"That would be me, name's Aaron, it's nice to meet you." He holds out his hand, waiting for me to shake it.

"It's nice to meet you to, Aaron." We shake hands and move back to our respective tables, continuing to socialize amongst ourselves.

After a few minutes of talking, someone stood up.

"Hey, where did we get all of these tables and chairs from?" Now that he mentions it, that is a good question. I was only asleep for an hour at the most, how they got so many tables and chairs without me noticing, I will never know.

"Oh we bought them from Amazon instant shipping, it's quite handy in situations like this." All of the soldiers laughed as some continued to sing and dance, I'm guessing it's a tradition of theirs. Taking a few more sips of my tea, I look around for Nick, he should have been back by now.

"Oi!" Everyone became quiet and looked at the person who yelled, I'm honestly surprised that we haven't been caught by the snipers. "Yessir, esta es la escuadra Alpha, ¿qué está pasando con Delta?" Whatever he was told he got a large smile on his face. "Somebody radio Charlie squad, Delta accidentally found another secret entrance." Aaron began to call Charlie squad while everybody else packed up the chairs and tables, in their backpacks. I was baffled by the fact that they could fit tables and chairs in their backpacks, that's not physically possible. Aaron quickly ran to the front of the group, possibly taking a head count.

"Alright, we need to get over there as quickly and as quietly as possible, who's got the sound canceling grenades?" Seven troops raised their hands, Aaron giving a thoughtful nod in response. "Okay, so as we move, what I need you seven to do is toss a grenade once we hit the edge of the barrier of the first one. Are we clear?"

"SIR, YES, SIR!" They all yelled in unison. I'm seriously wondering how we haven't been heard with all the yelling they've done.

As we snake through the trees, ducking and hiding when needed, we come across several dead bodies. These bodies look like they've taken a brutal beating from all of the bruises and cuts on them, the spiked maces stuck in the tree, the blood covered face of one unlucky man, and entire limbs looking like they were painfully cut off. It disturbs me when we finally get to where Nick is. I've been told that he's a little 'off his rocker', but this is just pure insanity. There he is, covered in blood with the detached head of whatever poor bastard decided to attack him. As if that wasn't bad enough, he was sucking the blood out of a heart that he just pulled from a corpse. When he notices us, he smiles and tosses the head against the tree.

"Took you guys long enough to get here."

 **.:Post Story:.**

 ** _CC75: wow, that's a long ass chapter_**

 ** _Nick: yeah, and I like how you ended with that cliffhanger. Some people might think that I've gone insane_**

 ** _Noire: are you kidding me? That's terrifying_**

 ** _CC75: it was supposed to be_**

 ** _Noire: you're so cruel_**

 ** _Nick: he knows_**

 ** _CC75: before I forget, I would like to give a shoutout to_**

 ** _Tf2Scout_**

 ** _And_**

 ** _For following and favoriting my story_**

 ** _Nick: you guys are amazing_**

 ** _Noire: I'm leaving, goodbye_**

 ** _Nick: awww come on, Noire, it can't be that bad_**

 ** _CC75: this is CookieCreeper, sinning off before Nick gets bitch slapped_**


	15. One Ending, Another Begining

**I'm so sorry that this took so long to come out, I've been dealing with a bunch of personal shit (also writer's block is a bitch) and sickness has been a constant issue. Don't worry, I'm feeling better.**

Chapter 15: One Ending, Another Begining

"Took you guys long enough to get here." I always wondered why whenever I used my regeneration, the few people I don't want to see me lose my cool show up outta nowhere. Noire looks horrified by what she sees, the heart in my hand, the extremely sharp and long teeth, my red eyes glowing brightly, my body covered in blood, these are all things I would have liked for her not to see. I toss the heart away, the blood now drained completely from it. I return to normal, well as normal as possible, and wipe the blood from my lips with my hands. Aaron begins to laugh and continues his leisurely walk towards the hole.

"Man, how unlucky these motherfuckers were to mess with you, amiright?" Most of the other soldiers began to move on from the initial shock and burst out laughing as they make their way to the secret entrance, but some of the others, Noire included, were stuck in fear or shock of what they saw. I do a few quick breathing exercises, preparing for the worst, and begin strolling in Noire's direction. I stop in front of her and put my hand on her shoulder, Noire letting out a small yelp.

"Noire, I need you to come back to your senses. We need as many people as possible to fight at the highest possible strength." Noire seems to have recovered, somewhat, from the unwanted surprise that she saw earlier. She slides my hand off her shoulder and takes a few steps away from me, her hands trying to hold her heart.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT ALL ABOUT?!" Holy hell that was loud, but I should have been expecting that. *SMACK* aaaaaannnnndd there's the slap I knew was coming eventually.

"GAK! FUCK, that hurt a shit ton more than I was expecting. What the hell?" Noire looks surprised at the sheer amount of force she put in that slap. She puts a hand on my cheek and looks over the left half of my face, worry written all over her face.

"I'm really sorry, that was a lot more force than I meant."

"Relax, you didn't draw blo-" I feel something starting to flow out of my nose, Noire looking like she's seen a ghost. I tilt my head backwards and pinch the bridge of my nose. "Okay, never mind. You did draw a bit of blood."

"Is there anything I can do?" She takes a step towards me, one of the soldiers putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Hold up, this has happened before, you might wanna move back." Noire gives him an angry look, but still backs up. Now I can finally let all of this blood buildup out. I turn away from them and release the pinch I had on my nose, the blood bursting out of my nostrils.

"FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK! That hurt like hell." The soldier from earlier comes over to me and hands me a pack of tissues and a sack of blood. "Thanks, Pim, you're a lifesaver." I hold several tissues over my nose and begin to drink the blood given to me, my strength slowly returning to me. After drinking the entire sack of blood, I wipe my mouth with the last of the tissues and stretch. "Alrighty then, let's get moving."

 **➡The Plan⬅**

"Kei, is there a large share crystal around here?" The slap I gave Nick had some extreme force behind it, more force than intended. If there's a share crystal around here, that would explain the over exertion of force I used. Kei checks her tablet and begins punching in commands to the scanner, the device giving off a loud beeping noise. Kei shuts off the device and points behind us.

"There's a large deposit of share crystals behind that back wall."

"What's a share crystal?" one of the soldiers puts his hand on the wall and it starts to glow blue.

"Tommy, I think they are referring to the pure light dragonite that's behind this wall." the soldier's hand turned a bright red, causing the others to step away. "Detonation." the wall and reveals the share crystals behind it, a bright glow emitting from the opening.

"Alright boys, grab a hand full and keep moving down the hallway, we've got a boss to beat." The soldiers move quickly on Nick's command each taking a handful and darting back to where they were before, waiting for the others to come back. After that little raid we kept a quick pace towards our objective, someone they call Malum. Apparently, Malum knows about my dimension and is the one who is sapping the shares away from Lastation. Nick puts his left hand up, I guess that he wants us to stop moving. "Hold it, we've got company." Sure enough, a small pack of crawlers are making their way down the hall in our direction, I guess that Malum knows that we're here.

"Okay, what are we gonna do?" Nick tosses me a share crystal and pulls out a dagger. He kneels down and draws a series of shapes and lines in the dirt, putting some type of black powder in the creases that he created. "Alpha and Delta squads will take out the crawlers and continue down the hallway," Nick kneels down and taps one section of the powder, setting it alight. The fire is a light shade of blue and is spreading to create an 'A' and a 'D' along with a line going through them both towards an 'X'. He then begins to draw another set of letters and shapes with his dagger, putting more powder in it. "Bravo and Charlie will head off with Alpha and Delta, but head right to find the nest." Just like last time he touches the powder causing a flame to ignite, but this time the fire is green. "Aaron, Jacob, Dan, Felix, Noire, Kei, and I will head down this hallway here and hopefully run into Malum. Is everyone ready?" They all nod, pulling out their weapons. "Alright, Alpha, Delta, MOVE." The men of the squads rush out and attack the threat, only the smallest of squeals coming from the dying enemies.

"We're clear, sir." Nick waves his hand, Bravo and Charlie squads run after Alpha and Delta.

It's been about four minutes and Nick still hasn't given us the OK for us to begin moving, I'm beginning to become restless.

"So, what exactly are we waiting for?" Nick holds up his hand and feels along the wall he's leaning up against, clenching his fist after his hand sweeps over something. *BOOM* an explosion goes off somewhere down the hallway that we're supposed to go down, a big smile forming on Nick's face.

"Alright, follow me." Nick dashes down the hallway, the rest of us following close behind. "Take a left." Claws appear from a glove on Nick's left hand, I don't remember him having that glove on when we came in. He embeds his claws into the wall and practically swings around the corner, getting a little too much enjoyment from the simple swing. The rest of us had to slow down and take the turn normally, picking up speed quickly so we could catch up with Nick.

When we finally caught up with Nick, he was cutting away at a wall of light purple...flesh? Well whatever it is, it's clearly in our way. Nick tosses me a mask and makes a hand sign, the other soldiers putting on similar masks.

"When did you get a mask, Kei?" Somehow, Kei already has a mask and is equipping it on herself. I wonder if that soldier that she was talking to a while ago gave her one.

"The soldier that I was talking to when you woke up, he gave me an extra one that he had on him." I guessed correctly.

"Malum." Nick sounds like he's ready to make a bloody mess out of somebody when he growls Malum's name, it's actually kinda scary. *WHIRR* the sound of an jet engine powering up catches my ear and I turn around. Nick is setting up a power beam attack, clearly wanting to blow through the wall in the most unstealthy way possible. "DISAPPEAR." *BOOM* the entire wall incinerates the moment the blast makes contact with it. Judging by the screams, screeches, and hollers that are becoming audible after my ears stop ringing, I think we've upset somebody.

 **➡️One Important Thing⬅️**

"Well well well, if it isn't Nick and his little possie." I launch an extra sword in the direction of Malum's voice, only to see that he caught the sword with two fingers.

"YOU!" Aaron charges at Malum, clearly not knowing how strong he is. Aaron takes a heavy swing at Malum, Malum catching the sword with his hand and bats Aaron away into a wall. I begin to laugh.

"You done fucked up, A-A-Ron." The other soldiers burst out laughing at the cheeky reference I made, even Malum gave a small chuckle at the joke. "You've become more jokey over the years, maybe Mercury has been rubbing off on you." Malum tightens the straps on his gauntlets and rolls his shoulders. "But enough chatter, let's fight." I smile and dash up to him, our blades colliding in a spectacle of black and white lights. My all seeing eye notices Noire looking mesmerized as we continue to battle. Malum throws a triple slash at me, I thought I would go first. I manage to block all three attacks, but realize that I've given him an opening large enough for him to attack. He swings with gruesome force, chopping off my arm.

"NICK!" I landed on the ground with a loud BAM, my spine breaking from the impact. My vision turns red, looks like I can't play around with him anymore.

" **Hahhh, it's good to finally be back in control, even if it's just for a small amount of time**." Malum's confidence dropped immediately the moment my alternate persona spoke. " **Aww, what's wrong Malum? Can you not handle me?** "

"I don't fear you, RedRum." Five black tentacles wriggle out of the opening left by our cutoff arm and slither towards our arm. "Don't even try it!" He catapults one of his swords at our tentacles, only to realize that they can't be cut.

 **"Nice try, bud, but you're gonna have to do better than that**." The tentacles latch onto our arm and drag it back into its rightful place, a black cloud slowly filling up the room. We begin to laugh as we rush at him, Malum preparing to block our attacks. " **Breaking Point**." Eight tentacles arise out of our back, all in dominion of sharp weaponry. They all begin to repeatedly stab, slash, and jab at Malum who is not going to be able to block all of my attacks. He swipes a one of my tentacles, completely exposing himself. " **Bad idea**." We wail on him with everything We had, not giving him any time to recover. We chopp him into little, tiny, bloody pieces almost instantly. " **That was fun, but it's not enough blood**." We look at Noire. No. Hell no. Hell to-the-fuck no! REDRUM I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU MAKE US ATTACK HER I WILL FUCKING PUT YOU BACK IN THE DAMNED UNDERWORLD! He doesn't make us attack her, he just calmly tells my body to stroll up to her. When we get within five feet of her, she starts to back up. " **How adorable you are** ," one of our tentacles caressed the side of her face, " **you sure have a cute one, Nick**." Noire shivers, she might be terrified of RedRum.

" _Alright jackass, give me back control_."

" **But she's quite attractive, I wonder how well she can handle us**." Noire's eyes widen with shock.

" _Ok, FUCK OFF._ " I break the mental barrier and retake control of my body, my vision returning to normal.

"Alright, I'm back." Everyone stares at me silently, I forgot that nobody here has seen me in my bezerker form. "Welp, guess I'll find that reactor on my own if you guys are too distracted." I walk to Malum's throne and push a red button, the throne giving off a whining sound. I look up to see a hidden doorway open up behind the throne. I look back at the others. "Y'all comin' or what?!"

 **➡Rift⬅**

"Y'all comin' or what?!" Nick's voice snaps me out of my shock. I've never feared something that badly since Anonydeath (is that how you spell it?), and that guy was a creep I never want to see again. I walk in the direction of Nick's voice. When I get to him, I see him operating what looks like a generator.

"What's this thing?" he presses a button and turns to me, a large smile plastered on his face.

"I'll let you guess." He presses a second button on the generator, opening the generator to reveal a pool of a rainbow colored liquid.

"Is this, share energy?" He nods and turns back to the screen he was looking at before I came in. I've never seen share energy in a liquified form before, it looks so cool. I reach out to feel the liquid, mesmerized by its radiant colors, and it leaps out and latches onto my arm. A large surge of power begins to flow through me, so much that I transform into my NEXT form.

"Woah, lookin' good Noire." I turn around to see that Nick had turned his attention back to me, I forgot that he's never seen my NEXT form. I laugh, amused by his reaction.

"Obviously I look good, it's me we're talking about." Nick smirks.

"I forgot how overconfident you are when you transform," he stands up and puts a finger under my chin, "if only you were always like that." He licks his lips, causing me to blush. I would have said something back at him, but I started shining like a light.

"What's going on?"

"You've absorbed too much share energy, we need to get you back to your dimension." He stretches out his hand and a portal forms a few feet in front of him. "Go, come back when you're done getting you're energy back to where it belongs." I leap through the portal and land inside of the my share room, I'm glad that I don't have to walk here. I lay my hand on the crystal and feel the energy flowing into the crystal. I notice a flash behind me. I turn my head to see Kei and Vinnie, who seemed very distressed.

"Something wrong?" Kei types on her tablet and shows me the screen.

"Not all of that power was yours, the energy level is at 173%!" I give a confused look.

"Is there something wrong with that?" The crystal begins to vibrate violently.

"If you overload the crystal, you'll cause a rift between your dimension and ours." Vinnie rips me away from the crystal. The Crystal unleashes a large beam of light, I hear civilians yelling and screaming outside.

"Oh no." We all rush outside to see that a large rift had opened right in the middle of the main street, those discussing crawlers leaping out of it. A tear rolls down my face, "What have I done?"

.:FIN:.

 **{}CC75**

 **[]Nick**

 **()Noire**

 **{Ayyy, I'm finally done}**

 **[Took ya long enough]**

 **(I'm glad it's done, though)**

 **{somebody respects my work}**

 **(Well, I have been pretty excited to see what's next)**

 **[I always respect you, I wouldn't exist if you didn't create me.]**

 **{you've got a point}**

 **[I know I do]**

 **{smartass}**

 **(Can we move on please?)**

 **{yes we can, take it away, other me}**

 **Today I'd like to thank**

 **Dragonslayer157**

 **RAINBOW heart or ultor**

 **And** **Michael742**

 **For following and/or favoriting my story**

 **Also, let's welcome my newest follower**

 **RAINBOW heart or ultor**

 **Thanks for following and favoriting me bro**

 **[welp, see you all next time]**

 **(Bye)**

 **{don't forget to leave a review. this is CookieCreeper75, LEAVING THE BUILDING}**


	16. The Rebirth

_**Holy shit I am late on this one…but it's extra long, so enjoy**_

Chapter 16: The Rebirth

 **[** **Nick's pov** **]**

"Wide swipe!" I slash through another group of crawlers, continuing my search for Jack. Kyle sent out an S.O.S. about twenty minutes ago and hasn't sent out another one yet, I'm starting to get worried. I only have the location of Kyle when he sent out the S.O.S. and I have a sinking feeling that the worst may have happened to him. I keep running faster and faster, cutting down Tremors that try to get in my way. _**CRASH**_. What the hell was that? I would like to check that out, but I've got more important things to get to right now.

"Master Nick, I've located Kyle."

"Give me the zone code." There was a moment of silence, I stop and prepare the super jump.

"I got it, location is: 39, 82, 242."

"Thanks, I'll call you back when I can." I disconnected the call and super jumped to the location. Now that I have an awesome aerial view, I can see a large pack of ogres converging on a crater. I really don't care what's there, all I know is that that's where I'm going to land. The moment I make contact with the ground, I bash in one ogre's head with my fist and stab another through the heart. An ogre strikes the ground, trying to disorient my movement. I jump up and roundhouse kick the ogre in the face, bounce off the ground, and chop off his head. Another ogre brings up his club and tries to bring it down on top of me, but to no avail. I sidestep left and hit an ogre in his knees, breaking them. Random ogre number 632 falls to the ground in pain, crying out for help (that's what I'm assuming at least). I look behind me to see Jack about to get crushed by an armored ogre. I kick my senses into high gear and take off towards Jack, summoning my long sword and my power shield. When I get there, I knock the large metal club out of position and launch myself onto the ogre's head. The armored ogre stumbles back, most likely unsure how to get me off. I notice his hands coming down on top of me and jump down, turning to face the beast. I point my long sword at his right eye and throw my sword at it, hitting the mark perfectly. The armored giant screams out in pain and collapses on his back as I land back on the ground.

"Wha-" I turn to see Jack looking over at me, I hold out my hand to him.

"Guess who's back."

 **[** **Noire's pov** **]**

"Not all of that power was yours, the energy level is at 173%!" I give a confused look.

"Is there something wrong with that?" The crystal begins to vibrate violently.

"If you overload the crystal, you'll cause a rift between your dimension and ours." Vinnie rips me away from the crystal. The Crystal unleashes a large beam of light, I hear civilians yelling and screaming outside.

"Oh no." We all rush outside to see that a large rift had opened right in the middle of the main street, those discussing crawlers leaping out of it. A tear rolls down my face, "What have I done?" Vinnie wraps his arms around me in an attempt to comfort me, his gesture is kind but I'm still upset.

"Relax, Noire, you aren't to blame for this." His calm and soothing voice manages to calm me down a little. "Feeling better?" I nod and transform.

"If we're going to fight these things, we need to evacuate the civilians." Vinnie and Kei nod and run out towards the citizens, funneling them away from the rift. I fly out and downward slash a crawler, the disgusting creature dissipating in a plume of smoke. I float in front of the rift, watching for any other crawlers to run through. Several crawlers jump at me, they must really have a death wish. I give them all a horizontal slash, the beasts falling lifelessly to my feet. "Ha! That was far to-" my gloating was cut off by a large pack if crawlers suddenly appearing in front of me, all of them clawing and scratching me. "You just don't know when to quit." I trigger my aura burst ( _Nick taught her that move_ ), and blast them all away. " **Lace Ribbon Dance**." Dead and done, now to deal with that rift.

"GROAR!" A Cyclops burst through the rift, swinging wildly at me. I dodge a few swings, but get hit by a couple others.

"Finally, I get a challenge." I quickly fly up and give the Cyclops an overhead slash. The Cyclops, surprisingly, catches my sword and gut-punches me into a nearby wall. "Now you're really pissing me off." I go to counter the punch that he threw at me. The Cyclops' punch was much harder than expected, but I still overpowered it. Now with the upper hand, I rush forward and hit him hard with a left hook, uppercut, and then drop kicked him for good measure. I flew over and pick up my sword while the Ogre was stunned, satisfied that I had beaten the beast down. I walk back over to the Ogre and step on his chest, pinning him down. "You fight well," I reel back my sword, "but not well enough." I cut off his head, a single question floating in my mind. "Why the hell was that so difficult?" I had meant to ask that in my head, but I said it aloud. I hear a roar from behind me, and turn to see a horde of those crawlers pouring out of the rift. I prepare myself for a fight.

"Enemy lightning strike inbound." What was that? I look back to see, what might be, Mercury. There's lightning surrounding his body. A giant ball of electricity appears above his head, he throws it down onto the crawlers. After my vision clears, I see what looks like a giant knight emerge from the rift. I hit it with multiple attacks, but it doesn't seem to be phased by my attacks. I go in for a ' **Lace Ribbon Dance** ' to at least knock him off his feet, but he just knocked me aside. "BLAKE!" Just then, who I'm assuming is Blake, drops in outta nowhere and bashes the knight on the head with an extremely oversized sledgehammer. The knight takes no damage, but the blow was hard enough to crack the helm and make him stagger backwards. Blake, at least that's who I'm assuming this guy is, slams the ground with the sledgehammer, ice spikes protruding from the ground and trapping the knight. Blake whistles and Vinnie comes bounding down the street, holding a spear. He leaps off the ground and lands on the side of a building, hopping of that one to another one. He continues doing this until he jumps up and is directly above the knight.

"Activate, Power Module!" Vinnie becomes engulfed by a green light, almost blinding me. When the light clears, a hulking suit of black and green armor stands in Vinnie's place. " **Your armor is cracked, allow me to fix it for you**." He takes the spear and launches it into the crack with extreme speed and precision, causing the knight to scream out in pain.

"Let's give this guy a horn." Blake holds up his sledgehammer, "Swap! Lightspeed!" A beam of white light streams down upon Blake's sledgehammer. When I can finally see what happened, his sledgehammer was turned into a battle axe that was glowing white and he had a white light flowing around the edge lines of his body. Blake's hair was now a little longer and light blue. His eyes were now a bright red, he reminds me of Blanc when she transforms. Blake jets up to the embedded spear and punches the thing right through his skull, I can see the tip of the spear sticking out the back of the knight's head. The knight falls on his back and dissipates into nothing. While in awe, I didn't notice the boys rush through the rift. I did notice that Neptune and the rest of the gang was now all here.

"What happened?"

"Are you hurt?"

"Where's Nick?"

"Should I find actual clothes to wear?" While Neptune's question was kinda random, I gave everybody else a summary of what happened.

"So, is Nick and the others over there?" Nepgear gestures to the rift, sounds of fighting emitting from it.

"Only one way to find out." I walk up to the rift and step into it.

 **[** **Nick's pov** **]**

"That should be the last of 'em." I look around, just to be sure.

"Holy hell-* **cough** ** **cough** * ACK!" Blake's axe dispels itself while Blake collapses to the ground, coughing up blood. Vinnie, still in his super form, rushes to Blake's side.

"Blake!" Vinnie picks up Blake and sits him upright against his own body, searching for the cause of his bleeding.

"Somebody call Mike." I yell back at the other three who aren't doing anything.

"Already doing that, master Nick." Thank Christ that Kyle exist.

"Mercury, go get Max and his workers to take care of the rift." Mercury gives a mocking salute and runs off, I'm going to kill that jackass one day.

"What happened here?" I turn back to see Noire and company, all looking dumbfounded by the sight before them. I notice Noire giving me a strange look.

"What? Is there something on my face?" I check myself. Nope, nothing physically weird.

"Your hair is white." I check myself again, huh, it is white. Guess I didn't deactivate my iron skin. I return to my base form, the large amount of mana I used catching up to me. I kneel down, clutching my side. Noire begins to take out a health potion, but I wave her off.

"I just used too much mana, I'll be fine." A blue summoning circle appears below us, I flinch thinking it was an enemy for a second.

"Finally." Mike arises from the center of the circle, his eyes glowing a deep blue. The circle disappears and Mike rushes to Blake's side. "Drink this." Mike pulls out a blue potion and hands it over to Blake, who chugs the whole thing down without hesitation.

"Thanks." Blake takes a look around. "Hey, those beast were part of the Kingsmen." He picks up one of the patches that one of the beast had on and holds it up for us all to see, the mark of the king standing out among them all.

"Does that mean we need a rebirth already?" Kyle ask, pulling out his phone.

I look at the patch, my answer already chosen. "We need a rebirth, but we need to do it on both sides of the rift." I point at Blake. "Blake, you and I will set up a rebirth on their side." I point back to Noire and the others. "Vinnie and Mercury will set one up on this side." I was about to head back when Noire stopped me.

"Hold it, what is a rebirth." I look at her a smirk on my face.

"You'll see." Blake and the ladies walk with me to a cave, where some of the kingsmen were waiting for us. Blake and I dispose of the beast easily, much to our relief.

When we finally get to the rebirth pool, the stone is sitting there in the center; It's almost like it's been expecting us. The girls marvel at their surroundings. "Wow, I'm going to have to remember this place." Noire mumbles to herself, well it's too bad that she won't.

"Let's move." Blake steps in, the water only moving up to his waist, I quickly follow suit. On the opposite side of the pool I see a mirage of Vinnie and Mercury walking up to the stone, smiling once they see us. The four of us touch the stone and close our eyes.

"Rebirth."

RTR: The Rebirth

Nick wakes up with little remembrance of what had happened the night before, but the woman sleeping next to him told him all he wanted to know. He gets up and looks around the room, taking note that it isn't his own. " _Goddammit_." He thought, his long night of drinking had ended in another one night stand… **again**. He put his clothes back on and walked out the hotel room, heading back to his actual house. As he continued walking, his thoughts kept trying to figure out what had led up to him dropping into the club for a fun night; But he couldn't go farther back than when he and his friends went out to the club. Nick eventually gave up on trying to remember and instead, thought up of an excuse for his absence this morning to Kyle. When he stepped into the house, Jack gave him a hug " _He was probably worried_." Nick thinks to himself, not paying enough attention to notice Kyle who is currently stomping his way over to the pair.

"Master Nick." Kyle says, sending a shiver down Nick's spine. While the softness of his voice seemed to be out of a genuine worry, Nick knew better.

Nick turns his attention to Kyle, who was clutching a document of some kind in his hand, and said "Well damn, good to see you too." He smirked as he thought he had managed to slide past the usual question of his whereabouts, although he did the exact opposite.

"Do you know how long I've been looking for you?" Kyle says, the smile that he had getting wider, causing sweat to pour down Nick's back as he realized that he wasn't getting out of this lecture. Kyle grabs Nick's shirt and pulls him in, a growl coming from Kyle. "FOURTEEN _HOURS_!" This revelation hit Nick like a truck as Kyle continued to yell at him. Fourteen hours, Nick had forgotten fourteen hours of his life and at this point, he didn't care. Due to Nick not having the strength or the care to resist, Kyle drags Nick off into his office where Mercury is waiting for him. Before he could he could ask anything, Kyle cut him off saying, "The Deen has awoken again." Hearing "the Deen" doesn't bode too well with Nick, but that uneasiness allows him to wake himself up a bit.

"So what the hell do we do this time?" Nick asks, standing upright. He knows that the first time they tried to raid the Deen's castle, almost everybody died. Nick becomes more upset as he remembers the front that he took with Blake, the look of confidence that they had going in with a million troops each, only for Blake to get blasted through the chest and being swiftly taken to the med bay. While Blake is still recovering from that injury, at least he's alive; But Nick doesn't want to dwell on the subject any longer and wipes the thought from his mind. Mercury doesn't seem to be doing too well either, despite the fact that he and most of his side survived. The only thing that could possibly be troubling him would be the state of his brother, but he doesn't want to ask.

Kyle tells them, "The base has been under constant bombing and we need someone to head down there to "check things out" while I organize a strike team to follow in after they find the Deen's throne room and take the guy out…or send him off into another dimension." While Nick doesn't want to try and two man this operation, that's all that was left. Vinnie had been nonstop training with Charlie and Monte, Blake was still recovering in the hospital, Richard and Ron were taking over some field duties in Blake's absence, Mike was being worked to hell with his **and** Blake's work, Max is fitting himself for prosthetic legs, Hayden's got his own work he needs to do, RJ and Cooper are doing guild work, and Jack and Kyle aren't going with them, so we're the only ones left.

Nick growls in annoyance, "Where do we start?"

"Here, I guess." Mercury sets up an anchor, while Nick keeps guard; the destroyed buildings giving them a bit of cover. Mercury tells Nick that he's done with the anchor and they both head out into the graveyard, a place where there are metal scraps and human limbs everywhere.

Nick couldn't help but resonate on the battle that happened here with a constant frown. " _So many were lost here,_ " Nick thought as he and Mercury kept trudging up the hill, " _and it was all for nothing_." Nick crushes the head of one of the sentinel bots in his hands out of anger for his soldiers, with little to no realization that his hand was now bleeding. Nick noticed that Mercury was up and over the hill, so he quickly followed suit; only so find Mercury on his knees. Nick couldn't quite make out what he was seeing and moved next to him, he saw seven hundred bodies at least; all of them were part of Spark core, Mercury's elite group.

"Was it worth it?" Nick looks over at Mercury, who had knelt at the edge of the crater; a single tear rolling down his face. "All these people are dead," he violently gestures to the bodies, "AND WE STILL HAVEN'T WON!" Nick takes a few steps back, unsure of what to do. He had never seen Mercury snap, let alone to this degree. Luckily for him, a crusher bot erupts from the ground. Nick leaps back in time, but Mercury was hit up into the sky. Nick, being the quick thinking fighter he is, rushes up to the bot and rips its arms off; bashing the head of the bot. Nick notices the small crack in its head and continues to bash its head in, taking a mental note of the sounds of other bots coming towards them. It's at this point that Mercury crashes on top of of the crusher, completely destroying it.

"There's more of them on the way," Nick says, summoning the BloodSaber, "we need to get into the stronghold quickly." The two of them run down the path to the stronghold, Nick wondering why this was so easy; only for him to be blasted back by an explosion. Nick stands back up, vision blurry, movement jarred, thoughts mixed, left arm broken, and limps toward Mercury; he hasn't moved yet. Nick feels the structure of Mercury's body, "Cracked left arm, dislocated right shoulder, spine is okay, his back's got a shitload of cuts, bruises, and gashes." He says, picking Mercury up and slinging him over his shoulder. "We gotta go." Nick takes off, running to the stronghold; dodging bullet and rocket fire along the way. Nick's healing kicked in and repared all of his wounds, only for another mine to blow him into a flag pole, breaking his spine and knocking him out.

"-ck! Nick! C'mon man, wake up!" Nick shakes his head to further his waking up process and looks around. They were being trapped inside a glass cage, by none other than the Deen, who was having a grand old time laughing at them.

Nick, blinded by his anger, charges at the Deen; only to get a large shock from the glass cage. "What the hell?"

The Deen smiles, "Do you like the upgrades to my cage?" Nick turns into a shadow bear and slashed the cage, only to get shocked again and be flown back into the middle of the cage. "I'll take that as a 'no.'"

Nick reverts back to normal and sits up, rubbing his head. "What the hell do you want, Deen?"

The Deen turns his attention from his console to Nick. "Well, ever since you and Mercury got those items that make you regain your health at an annoyingly fast rate, you've been a thorn in my side; but now I have the ultimate way to get rid of you." The Deen pushes a button revealing a portal underneath the cage. "I'm going to send you away, to a place where you can't get back to me. AHAHAHAHAAAAA!" As the Deen laughs, Nick turns into a Kraken and crushes the cage, barreling down toward the Deen. Mercury launches one of his daggers in the Deen's right eye, the mechanical man screaming out in pain. " You'll pay greatly for that." The Deen says as he bashes Nick over the head with a sledgehammer, cracking his skull.

Nick gets up again and stumbles a bit, the head trama not completely gone, and feels the blood running down his hand. Knowing he has moments to stay conscious, he and Mercury fire a volley of ranged attacks before The ground below them gave way to the portal taking the two with it.

Nick lands with many broken bones and his head wound still hasn't completely healed, but that didn't matter to him at that time. Nick looks around, seeking out Mercury. He finds Mercury and would normally help out his friend, his blood loss has caught up to him, and he fell over; noticing two women floating down toward them, one with purple hair and one with white hair.

"A rebirth out of spiritual adversity causes us to become new creatures."

-James E. Faust

 **Sorry that this took so long, but at least it's done now.**

 **Don't forget to leave a review skrubs**

 **BYE**


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